《The Vampire's Never-ending Curiosity》 Glossary CAUTION. The following information might contain spoilers to later chapters, if you are not caught up with the story yet.
Main or major characters Spoiler: The protagonist She is a newly born pure vampire. Her story starts from the royal graveyard of Estmoor, the capital of Kingdom of Cresta. She was born from the lingering mana, left from a huge 6th Tierdeathmagic area spell,Wave of Death, which was cast in Cresta ???? years ago, in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of the three-year war against Morgia Empire, Magisus Kingdom and Theocracy of the Sun.
Minor characters
Magic People who use the power of magic, magicians, are more commonly referred to as mages of sorcerers. The former are low or mid tier magic users, while sorcerers are highly skilled. The word ''magician'' itself is only a honorary title, it is rarely used in common speech over ''mage'' or ''sorcerer''. Magic: Fundamentals of Magic Magic is the power of mana. Mana can mostly be found in two forms: inside living creatures (and oftentimes undead and golems) and in the surroundings as remnants of magic spells that have been cast. In order to create mana inside their body, a living being needs three things: In order to cast the actual magic spell, the caster then needs to imagine the effect they want and the mana does the rest. Magic is not 100% efficient, so small portion of the mana will be left as an aftereffect in the surroundings. Clothes, armors, accessories or weapons that have magic cores imbued in them or are made from materials with good natural magic properties can help a caster replenish their mana significantly faster. This can help to cast spells significantly faster. Good natural magic properties basically mean the material¡¯s natural ability to absorb spirit energy. Such materials are ancient trees, orichalcum, some materials from corrupted monsters and even mithril to some extent. Magic: Spirits Spirits are a completely separate entity from other races. They are small immortal beings invisible to most races. Only races with large magic cores and good control of magic can see them. Such beings are adult elves, old merfolk and vulrens, ancient dragons and some pure vampires. Spirits are the origin of magic. Just by existing they radiate their endless energy into their vicinity. This spirit energy has their own element imbued in it and living creatures absorb that energy and convert it into mana with their magic cores. Each spirit naturally has an element and they exist in large amounts nearly all over the world. Spirits don¡¯t like to reside in areas that are against their element. For example water spirits hate to stay near volcanoes or forest fires and fire spirits are almost nonexistent in the bottom of the ocean. Sun and moon spirits reside almost all over the world. Spirits¡¯ strength and the level of spirit energy they radiate depend on how much of their element is in the vicinity. As a result it will be difficult to cast water magic near a volcano or on the desert. Or sun magic during a dark night. Spirits also act as the purifiers of air. They eat the residual mana of their element that lingers in the air after a spell has been cast. They convert the mana back into their own energy, which they then again radiate into the air. If the mana is left unattended, it can lead to corrupting creatures that are not compatible with the mana''s element. Few creatures are compatible with Moon element, as most living beings are creatures of the day. Magic: Elements The following seven are the basic elements of the world: Sun (a.k.a. Light) Sub-elements of illusion, healing and purifying. Moon (a.k.a. Dark) Sub-elements of ''shadow'', death and blood magic. Earth Nature WaterStolen novel; please report. Fire Wind There is also the additional ????? element Magic: Corruption Magical corruption is feared all over the world. It is a term most commonly used for madness and/or physical mutation caused by magic. It can also lead directly to death. The madness is usually caused by failed spells backfiring on the user¡¯s mind. Physical mutations are often caused from breaking the user¡¯s magic core. Physical mutation will almost without fail to madness, but madness can happen without physical mutations. Both can happen, if excessive amount of incompatible element of mana is lingering in the surroundings. Corruption can happen in three ways:
  1. Overdriving one¡¯s magic core with more mana than it can handle, causing it to break.
  2. Failing to properly filter spirit energy into mana of a pure element before casting a spell. If you try to cast a spell with mana that contains other element(s) than the spell you¡¯re trying to cast, it will backfire heavily and corrupt your mind and/or body, more often than not leading to madness.
  3. Excessive mana of incompatible element in the surroundings, usually Moon mana. Most races are not used to Moon magic so their magic cores and their mind can¡¯t handle it.
Mana lingering in air is different from spirit energy, as it is a form of processed spirit energy. Living beings can only absorb spirit energy, not mana. The lingering mana will just cause corruption overtime, like how breathing polluted air will make you sick. Excessive Moon element mana in the surroundings can easily cause either of the two aforementioned cases. Most races are capable of handling almost all elements at least to some extent, so the risk of being corrupted by other elements is small. I suppose if one were able to cast some of Fire magic around merfolk, that would have the same effect. I will introduce the concepts of Magic Tiers and Magical tools later
Races Spoiler: Humans Humans are the most common intelligent race on the Continent. They form over half of the total population. They are quite comparable to our Earth''s humans, with the exception that they have Magic Cores and many (but not all) of them can use magic. The humans of the story''s main continent have skin colors varying from near-white pale to brown. There are darker skinned humans in the world, but they don''t live on this continent. The average lifespan of a commoner class human of the world is lower than ours, about 60-70 years. Spoiler: Vampires Vampires are an extremely rare, immortal and intelligent undead race that strongly resemble humans in appearance. There are two types of vampires:
  1. Pure Vampires. They are extremely rare and strong, once or twice in millennium appearing variant. They are ''the originals'', ''the pure bloods''.
  2. Generation Vampires. Weaker and more common variant. Still very rare. Oftentimes also called ''Thrall Vampires'', but depending on circumstances the latter name is misused. They are ''born'' because of the actions of another common vampire or a pure vampire.
Pure vampires are not born like most undead. They are formed from a concentration of pure Moon element mana and a mass of spectres or ghosts that have not yet gained their own intelligence. Needless to say, this is an extremely rare occurrence. Due to being mostly made of mana, pure vampires have almost limitless potential in magic, as long as they keep gaining experience and knowledge throughout their lives by learning and feeding on the life essence of living beings. All vampires are strong magically, but Generation vampires are somewhat limited by their physical bodies and what they had learned before getting ¡®turned¡¯. All vampires'' most prominent appearance characteristicsare their blood red eyes and sharp fangs. The eye color can be found on other races too, although not often, so the fangs are the best give-away, yet hidden inside their mouths. Vampires¡¯ natural weapons and abilities are their night vision, high resistance to Moon magic, sharp and strong fangs, sharp and stronger-than-steel extendable claws and shadow magic, which includes their own unique ability to turn into dark mist. Being undead, they don¡¯t need to eat normal food or sleep. Instead they sustain themselves by consuming the life essence of living beings in the form of blood or equivalent life-sustaining fluid by biting with their fangs, by directly drinking and sucking through their fangs which are hollow. By consuming life essence vampires can gain the memories of their victim as well as some of their experiences and strength. Taking in their memories and experiences is voluntary and the vampire can choose not to do so. They are immortal, but are extremely weak to sunlight and the Sun element, making them far from invincible. All vampires are extremely strong both physically and magically, but they are quite much weaker during the day. They can still easily rival an orc and overwhelm a human in physical prowess during the day, but they are nowhere near their nightly capabilities. Spoiler: Elves Elves are a fair-skinned, long-eared and very long-living race who are highly skilled in magic and prefer to live in large forests and stay near nature. Spoiler: Dwarfs Dwarfs are a short humanoid race, skilled in crafting.
Miscallaneous Spoiler: Measurement of time The planet is the size of Earth. Years are as long as ours, 365 days long, with 12 months. There are 30 days each month, with the exception of 33 and 32 days in the 3rd and the 10th month respectively. Every 4 years the 10th month gets a 33rd day too. Year changes in spring. Daily time measurements are the same as in our world: 24 hours, 60 minutes, 60 seconds. In our world¡¯s terms April would be the first month of the year.
  1. Month of Life (month of new life, April)
  2. Ethrea¡¯s Month (month of the Nature Goddess, May)
  3. Solas¡¯ Month (month of the Sun God, June)
  4. Ignea¡¯s Month (month of the Fire Goddess, July)
  5. Mithos¡¯ Month (month of the Earth God, August)
  6. Ulros¡¯ Month (month of the Water God, September)
  7. Withrea¡¯s Month (month of the Wind Goddess, October)
  8. Dusk Month (month of dimming light, November)
  9. White Month (month of winter, December)
  10. Lunea¡¯ Month (month of the Moon Goddess, January)
  11. Crystal Month (month of ice, February)
  12. Dawn Month (month of brightening light, March)
Weeks are 7 days long like ours, with each day dedicated to a god or a goddess. On the novel¡¯s continent Sundays and Mondays are generally dedicated to praying and resting.
  1. Day of Lunea (Moonday, Monday)
  2. Day of Mithos (Earthday, Tuesday)
  3. Day of Ethrea (Natureday, Wednesday)
  4. Day of Ulros (Waterday, Thursday)
  5. Day of Ignea (Fireday, Friday)
  6. Day of Withrea (Windday, Saturday)
  7. Day of Solas (Sunday, Sunday)
Spoiler: Other Measurements Conventiently enough,this fantastic world uses our Earth''s Metric system and the International System of Units(SI). Maybe a World slash Time traveler introduced them to this world at some point? Prologue - Memories I wake up in darkness. I can¡¯t feel a physical contact with anything. Everything feels weightless and unresponsive, like I¡¯m just air without a physical body. Where is this? I¡­ can¡¯t remember anything. ¡®Who am I? How did I get here?¡¯no voice comes out as I try to speak these questions into the darkness. My confused thoughts are getting diffused in a fog of grogginess and a dull pain spreads everywhere when I try to think or remember. Something tells me that any intelligent being would usually get worried or panic in this kind of situation, but I don¡¯t really have any feelings of urgency about this. Everything just feels¡­ normal. Like it¡¯s always been this way. Whatever¡­ it¡¯s so hard to stay awake¡­ thinking so much is bothersome and I hate this pain that spreads everywhere when I do so. I¡¯ll just go back to sleep. ¡­
I wake up again, still sleepy but not nearly as groggy as before. I still can¡¯t seem to be able to feel my surroundings or make any noise, no matter how much I try. Trying to remember anything gives me the same dull pain that spreads everywhere just like before, so I eventually give up. How much time has passed since I fell asleep? Or since I woke up again? I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s really hard to estimate the passage of time in this dark and weightless space. It could be just minutes or even weeks for all I know. Closing my eyes, I try to listen for any sounds. Not that closing them makes any difference, the surroundings are just as dark whether my eyes are open or not. I¡¯m not even sure if I have eyes to open and close to begin with, since I have no feeling of a physical body. At least it¡¯s a mental image if nothing else. I feel like it helps me focus. There¡¯s only silence. I can¡¯t even hear my own breath or heartbeat. It¡¯s somewhat frustrating, but the dull pain is followed by increasing sleepiness again. I try to stay awake but with this endless darkness and no sound I have nothing to focus on and slowly lose consciousness. ¡­
The cycle of falling asleep and waking up again for indeterminate time repeats a few times. I¡¯m not sure exactly how many times it has been. But it feels like I¡¯m staying awake for longer each time. The dull pain takes longer to settle in as well. It¡¯s getting boring and frustrating to not have any information about my condition. I¡¯m not going to be stuck like this forever, right? *Thump* Suddenly I hear a distant, single sound in the darkness. *Thump* Oh, there it is again. A heartbeat..? *Thump* *Rumble* *Thump* No, it¡¯s deeper and too infrequent¡­ something heavy hitting another heavy object or ground. Or are they explosions..? I stop my idle thoughts and try to focus on the noise. Now I can hear some mumbled voices too. Finally something new in this intolerable silence! But it¡¯s so distant¡­ what is it saying? Focusing all of my attention to the sounds, I ignore the slowly spreading dull pain and try to make out what the voice is trying to say. ¡°¡­impossible! We can¡¯t¡­ with this few¡­¡± the voice keeps clearing up and then gets mumbled down again. It¡¯s a desperate sounding male voice. ¡®Hey, what¡¯s going on!? Can you hear me!?¡¯ I try to shout out to the voice but it seems like I still can¡¯t make any sound of my own. ¡°Messenger! Request for reinforcements from the capital! Tell them it¡¯s that accursed hero again, we need more Moon mages!¡± Oh, another voice! Sounds like a woman this time. ¡°Also tell them that our scouts reported less than an hour ago that a cavalry unit flying the theocracy¡¯s flag is approaching our flank from the west. They will be here in less than three days. Go!¡± I hear neigh somewhere, followed by the sounds of hooves start clopping, getting further away fast. ¡°What are the guys at Fort Dannis doing!? Did they just let the enemy through without a fight?¡± a new male voice shouts. ¡°For all we know the fort could have fallen already. We would be fine if it was just the theocracy in the west. Don¡¯t forget they¡¯ve also got the traitor Magisians, and they have the advantage in numbers. "Fuck! We can¡¯t hold this area if this goes on for much longer! And we are getting flanked. Senra, move your anti-cavalry troops to sector ¡®Dove¡¯ to greet our holy guests! I¡¯ll send someone special to support you guys.¡± The woman¡¯s and second man¡¯s voices are much clearer. But they are still so distant and a bit mumbled, like I¡¯m listening from underwater. There¡¯s more background noise now too¡­ a battlefield? Judging by the sounds and the shouts, some kind of fight must be going on. I can¡¯t just¡­ keep floating or whatever it is I¡¯m doing here in this weightless darkness. I could be in danger! Frustrated, I try to focus on getting closer to the distant voices. Ow ow ow! The dull pain is becoming not so dull at an alarming rate. ¡°Cain, go with Senra¡¯s men to sector ¡®Dove¡¯!¡± the woman shouts an order, now closer to me. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am!¡± I hear myself shout with a man¡¯s voice, which I haven¡¯t heard before and seem to have no control of. I still can¡¯t see anything though. Suddenly I recognize the woman¡¯s voice, like I¡¯ve known her for a long time. She¡¯s Cassandra Alvera, the General of the Southern Army of¡­ ¡®Huh?¡¯ It feels like the country¡¯s name is slipping from my mind¡­ Without warning a sharp pain hits me, while seemingly random bits of information flood my head. The dark world I¡¯ve got used to is filled with bright light, blinding me. I instinctively close my eyes and the shouts from the battlefield cease. ¡­ The pain goes away as fast as it came. I now remember that the nation¡¯s name, which I was missing previously, is Cresta. It seems the pain was caused by a flood of pieces of knowledge about this human kingdom, whose people are exceptionally talented in use of magic, especially in the rare Moon magic. There are many glaring holes in my knowledge though. It¡¯s like being able to only read a few random pages from a book, with the rest of the pages having been torn off. The kingdom has been in war alone against an alliance of three nations; one in south and two in west. The reason or reasons for the war and the names of the enemy nations are missing, but I suppose the earlier conversations about a ¡®theocracy¡¯ and the ¡®Magisians¡¯ are hints towards that information. After jumbling with the bits of information in my head, I notice that the sounds of my surroundings have changed into a peaceful, yet heated gabble. Confused at the striking difference compared to the previous sounds of war, I try to slowly open my eyes. Some kind of large hall scattered with a few large tables with maps laid on them spreads in front of me. Several people in robes of various colors and heavy looking plate armors surround the tables. They are talking heatedly with each other. I¡¯m standing in front of one of the larger tables, which has a detailed map with small wooden pieces, presumably representing army units, laid on top. There are eight people around the table, including me. I seem to have no control over my body or voice, but I can look around as long as it doesn¡¯t require turning my head. I notice a few bandaged people who have been laid down on blankets near the walls of the hall. They look like soldiers. Some people in white robes are rushing about and are attending to the injured soldiers. I hear the men and women around my table conversing about the movement of some mage troops with a large middle-aged man standing next to me to the right. He is clad in heavy silvery plate armor which contrasts with his dark brown beard and hair. I recognize him as the Chief Commander of Cresta¡¯s military and the General of the Northern Army and Admiral of the Navy. He is the most decorated military man in the kingdom¡¯s history. A loud bang brings me back to my senses from my observations and the hall becomes quiet. Large double doors were just slammed open at the far end of the hall and an exhausted looking man in leather armor runs in. ¡°Reporting! Message from General Alvera: Requesting for reinforcements. It¡¯s that accursed hero again, send more Moon mages. Scouts have also reported that a cavalry unit flying the theocracy¡¯s flag is flanking the army from west! They are expected to reach the perimeter in less than two days! That is all!¡± The messenger slowly lowers to his knees while breathing heavily, after faithfully delivering his message in a clear but exhausted voice. A white-robed man quickly brings him something to drink. ¡­ The hall, which had become so quiet you could hear a pin drop when the messenger barged in and delivered his message, seemingly explodes into life moments afterwards as dozens of people in the, I guess I¡¯ll call it a war room, start talking over each other about what was just reported, shouting orders and running out from the hall to deliver the message further. ¡°Well, that sure sounds like a message General Alvera would send! I can practically hear her voice in it,¡± laughs a slightly obese man in some official looking attire on my left side. ¡°But did you hear that? The Dragonslayer is back in the frontlines again. Couldn¡¯t leave us alone even for two months, huh?¡± says a thin brown-robed man, a frown clearly visible behind his eyeglasses. He¡¯s standing on the opposite side of the table. I recognize him as the Head Sorcerer of Earth Magic Training Center, Anthon Tome. ¡°And what the hell is General Mondre doing, letting Theocracy¡¯s troops through from the west? Ah, no offense, Julia. I¡¯m sure your brother is doing the best he can, they are sieged after all! I¡¯m just venting out my frustration at our current situation. But has he sent any words from Fort Dannis?¡± the Chief Commander asks while facing me. Wait, he¡¯s talking to me? Julia? Brother? ¡°None taken, General Kran. I am sorry. There has been no word from General Mondre or anyone else from Dannis Fort. I sincerely hope that the fort is still holding. There has been no news from him for a week, ever since the siege started,¡± I hear myself reply in a calm, feminine voice. Suddenly another surge of intense pain assaults me, this time more clearly focusing on my head. The pain is followed by a random flood of information and a blindingly bright light. ¡­ After what feels like a couple of minutes of shaking in agony with my eyes closed, the pain cedes and the light shining through my eyelids dims down. I hear a clopping sound. ¡®A horse?¡¯ I open my eyes and am informed that I am indeed riding a horse as I thought. I seem to be riding alone at nearly full speed on a hard dirt road. It¡¯s daytime, but the light is obstructed somewhat by the woods on both sides of the road. I still seem to have no control over my actions. After a short while I exit the woods and start riding up a mild slope for some distance. Getting to the top of the slope, large green plains open up ahead of me. The road snakes down the hill into the plains and forks a couple of kilometers ahead to lead either into a large city with high and sturdy looking stone walls or past it into the horizon to the right.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. My recently gained headache inducing knowledge informs me that the beautiful city is the capital of Cresta, Estmoor. ¡­ I ride through the open gates of the capital without getting stopped by the guards. I continue riding through the crowd while shouting ahead at the unaware pedestrians to watch out, without slowing down my speed. Sounds like a female voice again, but it is higher than Julia¡¯s. Despite my warnings and the loud clopping of hooves against the cobblestone road, some commoner looking woman, carrying what I assume to be groceries, doesn¡¯t notice me in time and gets thrown to the ground violently as my horse bumps into her. ¡®I¡¯ seem to not care and continue riding ahead without apologizing, slowing down or looking back. After another few minutes of riding and half a dozen victims later, the horse reaches castle walls in the middle of the city. I ride to the large portcullis which is currently down. ¡°I have urgent news to the king from Fort Dannis! Open the gate!¡± I hear myself shouting to the guards in a somewhat panicky tone before I stop and get off the horse in a hurry. I¡¯m in front of the royal castle. The two guards seem to recognize me and take a quick and worried look at each other. My horse is absolutely exhausted and almost collapses on the spot. Poor animal, I wonder how long he¡¯s been going at full gallop. ¡°Open the gate!¡± one of the guards shout. Almost without delay I hear a heavy clanking sound and the portcullis starts rising up. I quickly rush under the gate as soon as there¡¯s a large enough gap for me to fit through. ¡°Thank you! Please take care of my horse. I¡¯m really in a hurry!¡± I shout without looking back and hear the gate closing behind me. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am!¡± I hear a reply from behind as I run deeper inside. After running inside the castle I hear the sound of a second pair of boots running next to me and notice one of the higher ranking guards is following right next to me. ¡°I will inform the Royal Guards of the situation before you can enter, Captain,¡± the guard states, noticing my stare. I nod. After running through the castle for a few more minutes (wow, this castle is bigger than I thought!) I can hear my breathing become heavier, but I don¡¯t feel any exhaustion myself. I should¡¯ve have noticed earlier, but I don¡¯t seem to experience any physical feelings, just like how I can¡¯t control my body or choose my words. Eventually we arrive to large beautifully decorated wooden door guarded by two people; one mithril plate armored knight armed with a broadsword and one black-robed man with a beautiful wooden staff. The latter has leather armor peeking from under his robe. The guard who came with me signals for me to stop some ten meters before we arrive at the door. ¡°Please wait a moment, Captain,¡± he says and runs to the Royal Guards and exchanges a few words with them. The plate armored knight glances at me, nods and knocks at the heavy door. ¡°Your majesty, Captain Orlan from Fort Dennis is here to deliver urgent news and requests an audience!¡± he announces in a loud voice after waiting for a couple of seconds after knocking. ¡°Let her in,¡± comes a voice from inside. The guard who came with me salutes by placing his right fist on his chest while keeping the elbow pointing downwards at a perfect 45 degree angle, bows and leaves. The knight opens the door, nods for me to get inside. I quickly rush a few steps in, followed by the knight. The King of Cresta, Jonathan Eder Brimhel Cresta, is sitting in behind his work desk looking my way. He¡¯s a man who looks to be in his forties, with shoulder-length auburn hair with a full beard of the same color. I salute and kneel while facing downwards. ¡°Your majesty, I apologize for rushing here without prior notice, but this message is urgent.¡± ¡°We are at war. Delivery of important news from the frontline is more important than petty formalities. You are forgiven, Captain. Speak,¡± comes a reply in a tone which sounds a bit too casual for a king in my ears. ¡°Sir! Walls of Fort Dennis were breached less than a day ago. The fort has fallen or it is falling as we speak, if it has not yet done so. The Magisian army breached the walls on multiple points with the help of Theocracy¡¯s elite Paladins. We could have held the fort for weeks, if they had not managed to breach the walls. Their numbers are too large, now that they managed to break through. We estimate their numbers to be over 35,000 against our fort¡¯s remaining 8,000. Sending reinforcements is likely too late. I was sent to deliver the message as I was deemed to have the best chances of surviving. It is unlikely that there will be many survivors on our side, because they have Paladins among them. That is all,¡± my voice delivers the report with an obviously bitter tone in it. ¡­ I lift my head slightly to take a look at the expression of the king as he¡¯s not saying anything. He¡¯s frowning and after a moment sighs audibly, shaking his head lightly. ¡°Poor Josef¡­ it seems that we have now lost two of our four best generals,¡± he says in a saddened voice. ¡°Ah, no, thank you for delivering the message, Captain. It seems that I will need to make some preparations because of this. I will discuss with General Kran about whether it is reasonable to send troops to help the fort at this point. I will be summoning you as well later this evening, so don¡¯t go too far. You can rest until then. It must have been tiring for you and your horse to ride over 200 kilometers without rest in such a short time, even if you are one of our best users of stamina manipulation magic.¡± ¡°Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!¡± I stand up, salute, bow and turn to leave the room. The world shakes as I¡¯m struck again by an intense headache that makes me want to scream and the blindingly bright light follows soon after. ¡­
The sounds of heels echo in silence. Instead of the earlier light, I see darkness. ¡®Did I lose my consciousness from the pain?¡¯ Opening my eyes, I see myself walking down a dimly lit empty hallway. It¡¯s dark outside and the hallway is lit with magical lamps. This seems to be the same royal castle from the previous memory. Yes, a memory. That is the most logical explanation that I can come up with for these weird events. These are someone¡¯s memories of what they have seen and heard, though the person seems to be different each time. The reason for this conclusion is that I can¡¯t feel anything the person whose eyes and ears I¡¯m using feels and I don¡¯t have access to all of their knowledge or any of their thoughts. Most of the random bits of knowledge I have come with the intense headaches I have during the transitions between the memories, not from the things I see and hear directly within them. If these are not memories, then I have no idea what else they could be. ¡­ I bring my focus back to the current memory. I¡¯ve been walking for a while. ¡®This castle really is huge.¡¯ After walking down some stairs and taking two more turns, I see large double doors guarded by two knights. ¡®Ah, that¡¯s the grand hall which I was in earlier, the one that looked like a war room,¡¯ my knowledge tells me, despite me not having seen the room or those doors from this side before. The knights salute and bow to me and push the doors open. I walk in without having to stop even for a moment. The sounds of the heels quiet down as I step from the hard stone floor onto the red carpet covering the entire floor of the grand hall. The war room is much quieter and emptier than it was last time with only a dozen or so people within the large hall. Nine of them are gathered around the largest table placed in the middle of the great hall. I recognize all of them. Each of them holds a powerful position in Cresta¡¯s politics, military or both. They had turned their heads towards me as the doors opened. ¡°Ah! My dear daughter! We have been waiting for you. Sorry to call you here this late into the night,¡± King Jonathan says immediately as he sees me and smiles brightly from the far end of the table. ¡°Good evening, Princess Cristina,¡± the other eight people greet me in turn while saluting and bowing. ¡°Good evening, father, everyone. It is fine, father. Everyone is doing their best help the kingdom in these hard times. I will also have to do my best,¡± I reply in a cute voice while stopping to do a light curtsy. ¡°Now that everyone is here, let us get into the main topic of the night. General Kran, share with everyone here the dire state of the war. Without glossing over, if you would,¡± the king nods at the giant of a man in heavy plate armor to his right. ¡®Does he ever remove that armor of his? It looks so heavy I can almost feel the weight on my own shoulders as I look at him¡¯ ¡°Sir. Everyone, as you know, we have been at war for three years now. We were prepared to fight against Morgia Empire in the south. However we were not prepared for a war on two fronts with their surprise alliance with the theocracy and Magisus kingdom. Our enemies¡¯ numbers became too great despite our overwhelming amount of skilled mages and sorcerers. We have been pushed back slowly, year by year, and can¡¯t request help from anyone. We have been in a naval blockade for over two years. We are running out of everything: resources, soldiers, and the citizens¡¯ goodwill. We lost Fort Dennis and General Mondre in the west a week ago and the Morgian hero returned to the southern front less than a fortnight ago. As things stand, the Empire will reach the capital within two months and we will lose the Tower of Magic Research to Theocracy of the Sun within the same time,¡± Kran points a location some 400 kilometers north from the capital on the large map, which shows the whole country. The capital is located close to the middle of the kingdom. A grim silence fills the room. ¡°If we lose the Tower, it will be all over for us. We can¡¯t let them get there no matter what,¡± speaks Count Cain, the second most powerful Moon sorcerer within the kingdom, who was summoned to the capital just two days ago. ¡®That¡¯s a familiar voice. Cain? Isn¡¯t that the guy whose memories I first heard?¡¯ ¡°That is correct. And that is why I have decided to authorize the use of Wave of Death, the most powerful area spell left by our ancestors,¡± the king states grimly. Gasps could be heard from everyone in the room, mine included. ¡°Are you sure, your majesty? That is a forbidden spell which takes the life of its caster! And if I am not wrong, casting it would require so much mana that we would have to sacrifice dozens of our best sorcerers for it to work!¡± panics Crewell, the Vice-commander of Moon Magic Corps. ¡°I am sure, Crewell. We do not really have any other choice. We will lose this war if we cannot turn the tide of this war soon! And it will be all over for the citizens of this kingdom if that Theocracy finds out the secrets behind our high rate of strong mages and sorcerers and spreads the information out to other human nations. I would rather try everything we can than simply wait and suffer longer only for all of us to eventually perish regardless. If that ¡®everything¡¯ encompasses sacrificing the lives of few strong individuals for the lives of everyone else, I am prepared to pay that price. Sacrificing a hundred in exchange for the lives of all the citizens of our country is acceptable. Do you all not agree?¡± My surroundings brighten up suddenly. ¡®Oh shit, here it comes again!¡¯ I grimace, preparing for yet another excruciating headache and a blinding light.
These weird flashbacks, floods of memories and swaps between people have already repeated so many times I¡¯ve lost count and I¡¯m really sick of it. I stopped counting after it had happened 22 times. I have no control over any of this and can¡¯t ask anyone to let me out. It¡¯s hard to say for how long this has been going on, but I¡¯ve definitely experienced several days¡¯ worth of memories if I just tie all of them together. Estimating from what I¡¯ve seen and heard so far, the memories themselves cover a timeline of about a month and a half. They seem to go in a chronological order for whatever reason but that¡¯s convenient for me, as it at least lessens my confusion to some extent. ¡­ But can I please stop this somehow? Each transition from a memory to another gives me more knowledge about the world of these memories, but the pain is so unbearable every time! It¡¯s so suffocating, not being able to shout nor cry even when I want to! I feel like I¡¯m slowly losing my mind. An explanation would be nice, anyone? God? If there is a god, researcher, whoever or whatever, responsible for this and can hear my thoughts, please enlighten me. Show yourself! And let me hit you in the face as hard as I can, at least a few times! Please! ¡­
Opening my eyes for the nth time to a new memory after the agonizing headache and irritating light, I see a dark room with no windows. The only source of light seems be far above: it¡¯s the bluish glow of this world¡¯s second moon. I can¡¯t see any exits; it¡¯s too dark to take notice of such details. This seems to be the Tower of Magic Research I¡¯ve heard of so much in my previous memories. The walls are so high that the moonlight only hits a large circular inlay on the floor. The inlay seems to be filled with some grey stone and blue gems to form a picture of the two moons of this world; Bless and Lunea. The circular border of the inlay glows with dark blue magical light. There are dozens of people, me included, standing in a circle around the floor¡¯s inlay. All of us are standing outside the inlay so that the moonlight doesn¡¯t hit us directly. It is hard to make out details because of the darkness, but with the moonlight¡¯s reflection from the surface of the floor and the inlay¡¯s border¡¯s blue glow, I can see the faces of half of the people who are the closest to my position. Hmm? Aren¡¯t these people the ones whose memories I¡¯ve been seeing so far? I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve seen at least some of them. I don¡¯t know the face of each and every person whose memories I¡¯ve been experiencing, since not many of them have had mirrors around during the memories. But by connecting the names and conversations I¡¯ve seen and heard, and combining them with the knowledge I¡¯ve painfully learnt during the transitions between the memories, I can recognize most of them. Glancing to my left I recognize five people from the war room, including Anthon Tome and Julia Mondre. Wait, isn¡¯t that Princess Cristina five people away to my right!? And I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s Cain and Crewell on the far left. So everyone here is a top mage within the kingdom, huh? But why can¡¯t I see the king or the queen anywhere, or any other important political figures, if I exclude the princess? They should all be in the top of the magical power hierarchy within the kingdom. Well, I guess it¡¯s a given, now that I think about it. They can¡¯t send all the leaders of the country away from the capital during war to perform some risky last-ditch magical ritual. Even if it¡¯s the last lifeline of the country, someone has to lead the country in the meanwhile, or in case something goes wrong. I¡¯m surprised that family-loving king would sacrifice his only daughter for this though, assuming that this spell really does take the life of its caster. I guess they really are out of options. Well, I can sort of understand why they would want to resort to this kind of thing, considering what they have been hiding for centuries. I¡¯m quite sure the rest of humanity their own citizens included, wouldn¡¯t like the truth they learn if Theocracy of the Sun gets their hands on Cresta¡¯s secret behind their high ratio of Moon mages and sorcerers. Moon magic is borderline taboo almost everywhere outside of Cresta anyway. ¡­ So the memories I¡¯ve seen so far are all from the people who are performing this¡­ spell, which the king ordered to be cast? I can count¡­ 56 people including the person whose memories I¡¯m viewing now. It¡¯s all starting to make sense now! Well, not really. But at least I can connect all of these memories to something common; it all originates from this room. I feel like I¡¯m still missing something crucial as I have no clue why I keep seeing these memories. But the truth should be getting closer! The people in this room right now can all be considered to be among the best of human sorcerers. And all of them are supposedly sacrificing their lives for this. This must really be some insane magic! Well, they want to target all of the enemy soldiers within the kingdom¡¯s territory with Death magic, without harming their own people. I suppose something of this scale is a must. Killing over a hundred thousand enemy soldiers while protecting their own citizens or soldiers, which is a significantly larger number of people overall, both of them within the same area. The population of Cresta was something like 900,000 before the start of the war three years ago, so it¡¯s probably around 700,000 now? Maybe less, I don¡¯t really know the casualty count, but they have lost about 35% of their territory. I have gained a huge amount of information about this world and its magic, and more specifically about this continent, its history and its people from these¡­ I assume 55, because I stopped counting at 22¡­ short flashes of memories and the painful transitions between them, but I don¡¯t know any large area magic of any element that allows the targeting of specific people on such a grand scale, not to mention Death magic which is a sub-element of Moon magic. Could it even be magic of the Sixth Tier? Isn¡¯t that already in the realm of gods? Judging by the expressions in the room, I guess the super spell is about to be cast. Everyone in the room is gathering mana into their magic cores. Ooh, I¡¯m actually getting a bit excited here! ¡­ After a moment, all 56 people in the circle start chanting in unison. ¡°O¡¯ Mother of the World, Goddess of the Moon, One of the Two Creators and of the Seven Guardians, Protect thy Children from the Corruption of Night, And Shield them from the Evil of Darkness, Bring Death to these Enemies of mine, As I offer mine Blood to be the Shield, Wave of Death!¡± ¡­ ¡­ Time seems to have had stopped to me for a moment there. ¡®Uwah..! Somehow I feel like I¡¯m getting the goosebumps and shivers down my spine when I hear myself chanting those lines! Even though I can¡¯t even actually feel anything! And it¡¯s not even actually me chanting it! I¡¯ll never want to experience something that embarrassing!¡¯ The moment the chant is over, all of the 56 sorcerers release their gathered Moon element mana into the circle. A swirl of pitch black mist gathers in the middle of the circle, expanding rapidly. The entire tower starts shaking and cracks appear on the floor. The casters start falling down one after another to the floor, probably dead. A couple of seconds after casting, my point of view falls to the floor as well. At this same moment the black mist suddenly expands with the loudest bang I¡¯ve ever heard and everything goes pitch black and quiet. ... Oh, hello darkness, my old friend. Chapter 1 - Feelings and identity I regain consciousness only to be instantly assaulted again by the intense pain I¡¯ve experienced dozens of times before during my ¡¯memory transitions¡¯. This time though, the pain gradually increases into is much, much stronger than ever before and it feels like my head is about to explode. ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! IT HUUUUUURTS!! Make it stop makeitstopmakeitstop it¡¯s killing me!¡± after screaming, groaning, crying and writhing in the ground in agony for what feels like some minutes while gripping my head, the pain finally subsides, leaving me panting heavily on the ground. There¡¯s still a dull and frequent throbbing left in the depths of my head as an aftereffect of the intensity of the pain. ¡­ ¡®Huh?¡¯ Gears start shifting in my mind as I think back to what I was sensing during the past minutes. I¡¯m suddenly acutely aware of the coolness and rough texture of the material under me and of the feeling of my breaths, still labored and coarse from the intense pain, of the dryness in my mouth after breathing through the mouth for a while. My face feels like a mess because of my tears and runny nose. A gentle and somewhat cool breeze keeps licking my skin. I can hear my rough breathing, the wind around me and the little birds chirping occasionally somewhere in the distance. My eyes fly wide open for the first time in who knows how long time and any traces of the pain I had been experiencing disappear from my mind like they were never there. The first thing I see is a dull grey stone roof, supported by thick pillars made of the same material. My gaze wanders around everywhere, taking in details of the intricate carvings on the pillars and the roof. They depict various plants, animals and humanoids mixed with many symbols that seem to represent the sun and the twin moons of this world. My thoughts are flying all over the place with these confusing new feelings. I had known something was wrong when I could only hear and see in those memories, but this combination of senses is completely new to me. My fingers twitch and I try to move my right arm. It responds in the way I imagine. It¡¯s a feeling I don¡¯t remember having experienced before but somehow it feels so natural. I bring the hand in front of my face. It¡¯s a delicate looking, pale skinned hand with five fingers and long fingernails. The hand is attached to an equally pale, frail looking arm. I slowly touch my face. The difference in temperature makes my hand feel a bit cool to my face. But I can actually feel it, that¡¯s the important part! My fingers brush the still damp trails of tears, left there from when I cried due to the pain. I wipe the lingering tears from the corners of my eyes and rub my fingers together, feeling their moistness. I slide the back of my left hand over a few wet spots on the cool floor next to my head. The hand brushes over a bundle of hair. It¡¯s slightly damp from tears as well. Pinching my cheek with the nails of my right hand, I wince at the very sharp but welcome tinge of pain. A happy giggle escapes past my lips followed by gasp. ¡°Ah! Aaah,¡± a soft, high-pitched voice leaves my vocal cords into the surroundings. ¡°Oh yeesss!¡± ¡®I have a voice! I can speak! Oh, this joy!¡¯ I can¡¯t stop myself from laughing out loud. Tears start flowing endlessly again, this time from different reasons. The tears tickle the skin of my face all the way down, past my ears as I lay on the ground. Even that feeling is so lovely.
I¡¯m not sure for exactly how long I¡¯ve been lying on this same spot, crying, laughing and making weird noises to test my own voice. The loud caw of a crow or some other larger, and probably uglier, bird in the distance, so different from the gentle chirping of the little birds I¡¯ve been hearing so far, shakes my mind back to the reality of my current situation. Right... this is all a bit overwhelming but¡­ I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m naked since I could clearly feel the wind everywhere, I don¡¯t know where am I and whether I¡¯m alone or not. Although I¡¯m also pretty sure if I wasn¡¯t alone, someone would have already said or done something as I¡¯ve been awake for twenty minutes by now, by even the most optimistic estimation. I quickly sit up, doing my best to ignore the new feelings I get from the movement of my freshly acquired body, while scanning my surroundings in all directions. I¡¯m in some kind of large stone building with huge entrances at two of the four walls, on opposite sides, where one would expect there to be doors. Or rather, gates, considering the size of the entrances. So that¡¯s where the occasional breeze has been coming from, despite the fact I¡¯m technically indoors. I can¡¯t see any movement within or outside the building. The interior is dominated by two rows of thick pillars and half a dozen huge stone monuments between them. The monuments resemble coffins, three on each side of the building. ¡®What is this, a mausoleum or something?¡¯ For the record, I am in fact naked as feared, and appear to be quite obviously female as far as my knowledge of human physiology goes, if the pitch of my voice hadn¡¯t given it away yet. Alright, no obvious threats within sight from what I can tell. But I should probably refrain from making much noise. I don¡¯t really know much about my current situation or how hostile the environment is towards me. At least I¡¯m not locked up anywhere. It seems to be slightly dark outside, so it¡¯s probably morning or early in the evening. I can only see a few evergreen trees and¡­ dense rows of graves outside. There are no other distinct landmarks visible from within the building. Yeah, I guess this is a mausoleum of sorts then, as it looks like I¡¯m in a graveyard. What a lovely place to wake up in. ¡­ Right¡­ So I¡¯m finally free from that endless nightmare of memories and pain. I finally have a body that can feel and which I can move freely. ¡°I can even speak!¡± I really hope there¡¯s nobody lurking outside away from the entrances¡¯ view, listening to my embarrassing nonsense. The last thing I remember before waking up here is¡­ that. ¡®Wave of Death¡¯, was it? A heat flashes on my face shortly as I remember the incantation. A huge magic spell, that took the lives of at least the 56 people who were casting it, if those memories were even real. Then everything went black and when I woke up, I gained my last ¡®batch¡¯ of knowledge.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. When I try to think of where I am, my brain seems to vaguely guesstimate the answer as ¡®probably close to Cresta kingdom¡¯s capital, Estmoor; there are no graveyards with mausoleums of this size elsewhere that I¡¯m aware of.¡¯ Well, that¡¯s convenient. Better than nothing. Going through so many memories that happened near the capital had to count for something, though I could have done without the pain that came with the knowledge after each memory. Next up¡­ my identity I guess? My odd knowledge, which nobody technically taught to me personally, lets me know that I¡¯m in fact not a human, unlike what I had expected. In fact I¡¯m not a living being at all. ¡­ Eh? I¡¯m an undead. To be more specific, I seem to be a being known as a ¡®pure vampire¡¯, the rarest form of an already rare species. And how do I know this? Apparently, it¡¯s some kind of defense mechanism for us newly born vampires to have the basic information about our own race to prevent us from instantly killing ourselves by walking into the sunlight or something equally perilous. The knowledge also teaches us about our basic needs, strengths and weaknesses, as there is usually nobody around to teach us when we are born. This knowledge is given to us pure vampires by the Goddess of Moon, Lunea, who governs over death, night, all nocturnal creatures and the Moon element. H-huh..? So this pretty much explains the intense pain from earlier when I woke up. It was the information given to me by Lunea. And the last bits of knowledge added from the 56 memories I experienced intensified the pain exponentially. Experimentally I lick my canines and notice they are indeed very long and sharp. I brush my fingers on my ears and feel their shape. Yup, they are longer than a human¡¯s. I haven¡¯t seen any elves nor do I have a mirror, so I can¡¯t really make a comparison, but they are supposed to have longer ears than vampires have. Curiosity tickles in the back of my mind though, I really want to check! I make a mental note to search for some elves at a later time. ¡­ Alright, I¡¯ll have to piece my thoughts together for a bit. What I gather from the 56 memories and their knowledge from earlier regarding how pure vampires are born, my past experiences start making sense. This sure is a lot of information to process though, I¡¯ll need some time. Glancing around again, I stand up and walk over to one of the large stone coffins. They are actually much larger than I initially thought. Even though they are laid down, they are still so tall I¡¯d have a hard time climbing on top of them. Or maybe I¡¯m just too short? I don¡¯t really have anything to compare to, although my figure looks adult. I brush the worst of the dust and small pebbles off the floor and sit down, leaning against the coffin. Here should be a bit safer in case someone happens to peek inside this building. Sighing, I close my eyes and lean my head against the coolness of the stone behind me. ¡­ So¡­ vampires are not born from parents at all. We are undead after all. And as a result, we don¡¯t have a given name. So for now I¡¯m nameless, not that it matters. I can think about that when the time comes. We ¡®pure vampires¡¯ are created naturally from a concentration of huge amount of residual Moon element mana lingering in the surroundings in areas where there has been a lot of death ¡®fairly recently¡¯. The time frame is quite broad depending on how one perceives the word ¡®recent¡¯, but in case of us immortal vampires, it is anywhere between about 25 to 50 years. General rule of thumb for the time it takes is that the more mana there is in the surroundings the less time it takes. The amount of mana which forms us needs to be huge, because elemental spirits naturally eat and cleanse the mana back into their own spirit energy as time passes. The mana also usually needs to be of the Moon element, which includes the sub-element of Death. This means the spell(s) cast must be Moon magic as well. Mana of any element can technically give birth to the (lower level) undead, which are non-living creatures of the night born from residual mana, because death (one of the requirements for undead to be born) is closely tied to the night and the Moon element. But it would take about ten times more residual mana of any other element to create undead, so Moon element is by far the strongest in creating undead. On the other hand, undead can¡¯t be created without death. Just pure Moon element mana cannot create undead, if there are no ¡®dead things¡¯ to un-death¡¯. The knowledge we vampires have upon ¡®birth¡¯ comes not only from Goddess Lunea, but also from the memories contained within the mana we are birthed from. Without the Goddess¡¯s knowledge we would probably be confused and think of ourselves as the race whose memories are contained within the mana, just like how I thought I was a human at first. Our so-called ¡®worldly knowledge¡¯ and ¡®common sense¡¯ are very dependent on what kinds of memories were contained within the mana we were born from. Memories can get imbued into mana without the consent of the caster while casting high level magic. Usually the memories contain only the moment of casting the spell, but with stronger spells the memories can be from further away in the past and last longer. Just like in my case. I¡¯m almost certain my birth and memories came forth from the mana that lingered in this region as the aftereffect of Wave of Death. The amount of memories and knowledge contained within the mana which formed me shouldn¡¯t be possible with Fifth Tier magic. It was most likely area magic of the Sixth Tier. I can¡¯t be certain until I actually read more history books, but I can almost certainly say that nobody has cast as large scale magic as Wave of Death on this continent in at least the past millennium. I should consider myself lucky to have so much knowledge from 56 people from the start, thanks to being given birth by such a powerful spell. That brings forth another question though: what happened after Cresta kingdom cast the spell? I don¡¯t really know about anything that has happened since the spell was cast and by judging from these memories¡¯ knowledge about vampires, it must be at least 25 years since then. Could be even half a century, though I doubt my birth would have taken that long. The amount of mana used on the spell was huge after all. This is a graveyard, probably a large one at that since it contains a mausoleum like this, so it¡¯s a given that this area is filled with death. I can¡¯t be certain about the end result of the war. I¡¯ll have to go out to see the surroundings to get a better idea. ¡­ Speaking of going out, I¡¯ve been awake probably for at least a couple of hours by now and my stomach is starting to protest a bit. I haven¡¯t eaten anything, ever. But thinking that way feels weird, since I have a lot of memories, days¡¯ or even weeks¡¯ worth of them, despite being less than three hours old. I¡¯m not starving yet, but I should probably start thinking about how to get food. It has to be blood or similar life-sustaining bodily fluid and this is a large graveyard. Odds on finding many living beings to feed on around here are low. I get up and take a peek at both of the building¡¯s humongous entrances. It still seems slightly dark outside, but it doesn¡¯t look like it is night or day yet. Shouldn¡¯t it be significantly brighter or darker now, since it was morning or early evening when I woke up? *Hoo hoooo! Hooo hooo!* ¡­ Eeh? Was that an owl? At this time of the day? Wait, something doesn¡¯t add up. It¡¯s still pretty bright outside, but I haven¡¯t been hearing the voices of little birds for a good while now. But I¡¯m a vampire. We are supposed to have quite a decent night vision. Could it be night? Was it late evening or night when I woke up? ¡®Alright, carefully then,¡¯ I start walking closer to the entrance at the left side of the building. The rays of light touch the floor for the distance of a few meters, pushing into the shadows in the shape of the entrance. I walk along a wall which has no entrances or windows, making sure I stay in the shadows until I¡¯m right next to the entrance, careful to avoid touching the light. I kneel next to the boundary between light and shadow, lift my right hand to brush my hair that¡¯s about to fall into my face over my shoulder and take a look at the pale hand, turning it around a couple of times while opening and closing my fist. I glance at the light hitting the floor. Switching my sight between my hand and the light a few times, I mentally prepare myself for some pain and prepare to pull the hand back fast, just in case. I¡¯m not reckless enough to peek into the sky to confirm whether it¡¯s the sun Solas or the twin moons Bless and Lunea up there just because of some stupid birds. Older and stronger pure vampires have been known to have some resistance to sunlight and the Sun element, but letting sunlight directly hit my head as a newborn, who has not yet even eaten anything to strengthen myself, would probably kill me before I can scream ¡®It hurts!¡¯ ¡°Haa¡­ well here goes nothing,¡± I place my fist on the ground extending the index finger, and start slowly inching it closer to the light. My eyes are glued to the finger and the tip of its long and sharp scarlet nail. If I was a living being, my heart would probably be trying to burst from my chest right now. The nail crosses over the boundary of light and I immediately stop my finger. ¡­ Nothing happens. I breathe out a sigh of relief. I hadn¡¯t even realized I was holding my breath. Yes, I do realize I don¡¯t actually need to breathe, being an undead. Maybe it¡¯s just a quirk from having so many memories from humans? I can¡¯t speak without air in my lungs anyway so there¡¯s no harm in being used to it. I slowly move the rest of my finger and then my entire hand and arm into the light, turning it around for a bit and nothing happens either. It really is night, then. I can go out safely. Standing back up again, I glance down at myself and feel a bit of heat spreading on my cheeks. Right, I don¡¯t feel particularly cold, although Cresta is quite far in the north. But this place is supposed to be near the capital for Lunea¡¯s sake, I can¡¯t exactly trot around in the largest city of the country naked! Yup, the first priority is food. But clothes come a strong second! Chapter 2 - Ruins My eyes take in the surrounding scenery after I¡¯ve stepped outside the mausoleum and gone down the flight of stairs. Countless of graves with different shapes and various symbols and materials dot the ground as far as eye can see. Visibility reaches to about a kilometer or two in all directions until the view gets eventually blocked off by the density of evergreen trees and graves. I can¡¯t see where the graveyard ends. Despite it being night, I have no problems seeing as far as physically possible, as if it was day. ¡®I like this night vision already!¡¯ I take a look at the sky. I can see two wildly different moons some distance from one another. The smaller dark grey moon, Bless, is closer to the horizon. The three times larger lapis blue moon, Lunea, is following its smaller sister, about two hours behind. It¡¯s now roughly in the middle of the sky. So it¡¯s a bit past midnight, I guess? There¡¯s no snow in sight so the season is nowhere close to winter. Cresta is the coldest region on the entire continent and has cold, snowy winters. It¡¯s not winter so days are can get quite long here in the north, especially during the summer. But even in the worst case scenario of it being mid-summer, I should have a good four hours before I have to seek shelter from the sun, Solas. I don¡¯t know the current year, month or day, but I do know how days and time in general works in the world, thanks to my fortunately abundant knowledge. A year in consists of 365 days, which are divided into 24 hours, 60 minutes and 60 seconds each. The days of a year are divided into 7-day weeks and 12 months, with 30 days in ten of the months. The third month has 33 days and the tenth month has 32 days. Every fourth year the tenth month gets a 33rd day as well. The year changes in spring. Well, the date or season doesn¡¯t matter for the moment; I¡¯ll just be happy that it¡¯s near midnight and I don¡¯t have to trudge in the snow while naked. Since I can¡¯t see the edge of the graveyard from, I decide walk around the mausoleum to the other side. Some distance ahead I can see remains of a tall spiked metal fence. ¡®I knew it!¡¯ a smile spreads on my face. There¡¯s no way a mausoleum of this size would be far from the edge or entrance on a graveyard of this size. I wouldn¡¯t even be surprised if this graveyard is somehow related to the royal family, with the size of this building and the coffins inside it. I forgot to check if there are any names or identifying markings on the coffins. I guess I¡¯ll check when I get back from my hunt for food. I start walking briskly towards the fence but don¡¯t get far before I notice some movement in the corner of my eye to the left. I stop and stare at the grave around which I think I saw the movement. ¡­ A badly rotten corpse is standing with its back towards me, swaying unsteadily without making sound. A ghoul? Well, if this graveyard has had enough death and mana to give form to a pure vampire, which are born once or twice in a millennium, it should be no surprise to see lesser undead in large numbers as well, like skeletons or zombies or skeletons or¡­ or¡­ other forms of reanimated undead! I didn¡¯t mention skeletons twice. Hmph, my knowledge about different types of undead seems to be lacking despite being one myself. Hell, I wouldn¡¯t even be surprised if there were other intelligent undead like liches around here. Back to what¡¯s happening though, the ghoul turned around and is staring at me. They are corpse eaters so technically it should be interested in eating other undead, right? It doesn¡¯t seem interested in me though, I wonder why? See? It¡¯s even walking away now. Is it because I¡¯m a much higher level undead and it knows that by instinct? I lift my right hand in front of my mouth and place my left hand to my waist in a manner Princess Cristina used to do sometimes. ¡°Bow before my greatness, you lowly corpse. Oh ho ho~¡± I muse in a quiet voice. ¡°Just kidding~ ?¡° I continue towards the tall iron fence. It consists of tall spikes that are connected to each other with more iron near the base and the top. The base of the fence is some kind of light grey stone and the spikes are embedded into it. Did I mention the fence is tall? I''m really starting to feel like a dwarf the more I see these tall and large things. I refuse to believe I''m that short though! I''ll need more comparison points before I start crying about my height. It appears to be in really bad shape now that I get closer to it. The iron parts are almost completely covered in thick layer of rust and the fence is missing large portions of it in both directions all along its length. ¡®Is nobody taking care of this place?¡¯ no matter how I look at it, nobody has bothered with this graveyard for decades. I can¡¯t help but get a feeling that something bad must¡¯ve happened when the Wave of Death was cast. Did Cresta lose the war? Or did something go wrong with the spell? I can¡¯t see a gate anywhere. Planning to go around and through one of the already existing holes in the fence, I firmly grab one of the rusted iron spikes and casually shake it to see how sturdy the fence is. The five-meter iron pole, as thick as my arm, gets snapped off its adjacent spikes and the stone basement. ¡­ I lift the pole barely feeling any weight from it, examining it with question marks floating in my head. ¡®Eeeh!? I¡¯m this strong!? No matter how I look at it, this is iron!¡® Uh, nevermind. I mean sure, vampires are strong. I just wasn¡¯t expecting this. I¡¯ve been watching human memories and learning human knowledge ever since I gained consciousness for the first time. Good that I found out now, I¡¯ll need to learn to adjust my strength. It might take some time, but I don¡¯t want to be some comedy character, who accidentally rips off the entire door when just trying to open it. Hm, I could use this as a weapon, no? Waving the pole around slowly, it gives a humming sound as it cuts through the air. Even if it¡¯s just rusted iron, it has a sharp tip meant to prevent grave robbers from climbing over it. But it¡¯s way too long and unwieldy as is, no matter how light it feels. ¡®Time to try this out,¡¯ I think excitedly, glancing at my nails. It feel like I naturally know how to do this. I tense up my fingers and the nails curve and grow to a length slightly longer than my fingers. ¡®Eh, what¡¯s this!? How does that even work? Where¡¯s the entire length of my nails hidden in? Is it magic? So cool!¡¯ I hold the pole horizontally in front of me around the middle, and slash at it with the claw of my index finger. With a clang the nail cuts cleanly through the pole with a small feeling of resistance and the blunt end of the pole drops to the ground with a thud. ¡­ I¡¯m starting have doubts the usefulness of this ¡®spear¡¯ if I can cut it that easily. These nails are obviously much more reliable! But I¡¯ll stick with the pole for now, even if it ends up being mostly useless, it has decent reach and at least shows to potential threats that I¡¯m armed. Alright, now armed, it¡¯s exploration and feeding time!
The graveyard appears to be within a large park or something. I just walked among the trees for a few minutes after going past the fence and reached a town. Or more like a city. Yeah, this is definitely the Estmoor from my memories. But there¡¯s no sign of the beauty and luster it had in them.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. The city is dead. Not just dead in the sense that everyone is sleeping because it¡¯s night time. It¡¯s dead quite literally. Capital of the dead. The city looks like a ghost town. The stone buildings are in poor condition. Many doors and all windows are broken. The taller buildings are missing roofs or even floors. Some are completely collapsed, filling the streets with rubble. The endless armies of weeds are doing their best to conquer the kingdom of cobblestone. There are bones and skeletons of humans littered everywhere, like everyone just died at the same time without any warning. The condition of the corpses gives away that the people have died decades ago, and obviously nobody has come to claim the city as their own ever since. Well, shit. This is worse than my worst fears. I could be fucked. Panic starts creeping up my spine. I can see some skeletons and ghouls wandering around some distance away minding their own business. Nothing here has blood flowing in their veins. Most of them don¡¯t even have the said veins to begin with! Shit! This could actually be really bad. The city is huge and if there are no living beings here I¡¯ll starve to death within a couple of days. Probably. I don¡¯t know how often I need to eat as is. Vampires don¡¯t need to feed as often when they start ¡®stocking up¡¯ on the life essence they absorb from blood, but the intervals at which my stomach reminds me of its needs are getting shorter. I¡¯ll need to find a high spot. Hopefully some tall building still stands. There are no hills or mountains within the city itself. The nearest hill is a couple of kilometers southwest from the outer walls of the capital, but the city is huge so the distance is much longer, since I don¡¯t believe myself to be near the western gate. I don¡¯t remember the exact layout of the capital, but I can maybe remember points of interest when I see them from high up. All I can see are human bones and corpses; I don¡¯t see any animal corpses like horses. There¡¯s a small chance that some of them still live near areas where animals were kept, such as the stables or pigpens. If that¡¯s no good I¡¯ll have to quickly leave this city and look for some wildlife to feed on in the surrounding plains, preferably before morning. ¡­ At first I sprinted around the streets aimlessly searching for a tall building or monument to climb on, but quickly slowed down to a very fast walk when running became too annoying. ¡®I really need to find something to wrap these up with!¡¯ I scowl down at the fairly large mounds on my chest. At first I wanted clothes just for the sake of modesty, but the reasons have changed. There¡¯s nobody to gawk at me other than rotting corpses and skeletons and these breasts are just an inconvenience if allowed to bounce around freely. Yeah, I get it. Having desirable looks is convenient when luring in a dinner, which is why pure vampires tend to be born with good looks, but right now this body a bit annoying. I glare at the blue moon, playing with the idea that its namesake goddess gets the message. For now I take a good grip on my makeshift spear with one hand and try to wrap the other arm around my chest and start jogging lightly. ¡­ I¡¯ve been searching through the city for some time now and found no buildings higher than two stories still intact. But I¡¯ve recognized a few places and do have a decent understanding of where within the city I¡¯m in now. I should reach the main street on the eastern district after a few more turns. Then I¡¯ll head for the royal castle. It has its own defensive walls and is sturdily built, so I should get a good vantage point from somewhere once I get there. I¡¯ve seen dozens of low level undead so far but none of them have shown any interest towards me. They react to sounds, but I haven¡¯t bothered wasting time trying to communicate with them yet. I¡¯ll have to do some experimenting later when I¡¯m not so strapped for time. Turning to the wider main street I can see the royal castle some distance ahead. It should take me about ten minutes to reach it at the speed I¡¯ve been jogging. It¡¯s clear as moonlight that the castle and its walls have suffered some heavy damage. The four main towers in the corners have crumbled down. But the main castle is still mostly intact on the southern side. The southern balcony on the third floor looks like my best bet. I should get a good look from there. But before that¡­ I face the opposite direction, looking at the open eastern gate. I can¡¯t help but notice how even the thick outer walls of the city have been damaged. The top of the wall is gouged out in resemblance of most of the taller buildings. It¡¯s like someone wanted to even out the city by scooping out everything that reaches past a certain threshold of height. The guards¡¯ station and stables should be nearby, but¡­ ¡®No! I¡¯ll have to ignore the guards¡¯ station for now, clothes can wait. And I smell nothing from the stables on this side of the city. The castle and food come first.¡¯ I turn and start heading for the royal castle. ... I found nothing of interest on the way to the castle. Same old ruins everywhere, with no tall buildings or monuments remaining. Bones and corpses are everywhere, some of them moving, most of them not. I arrive at the humongous portcullis, which unfortunately is closed. Of course there are no living guards around to ask for them to open it for me. The castle walls are damaged but not enough to make a hole I could fit through. I could try lifting the gate on my own since I¡¯m apparently pretty strong. But before that I¡¯ll go around to check if there are any bigger holes in the wall or if the other three gates are closed as well. Call it intuition or whatever, but my gut tells me I¡¯ll have better chances if I go north. The damages I¡¯ve seen so far seem to be worse towards the north than the south. The Wave of Death was also cast from the Tower of Magic Research which is north from the capital. ¡­ My guess proved to be right. The damage to the wall gets significantly worse as I get closer to the northern entrance. It takes me some time to get to the northern entrance, the castle and its grounds are quite vast after all. There were no large breaches in the wall on the way but as I reach the steel portcullis, I note how it¡¯s severely bent inwards in the lower middle. It can¡¯t be lifted up because of the damage, but there¡¯s a large enough gap under the gate for me to crawl under. I¡¯ve seen so many memories from inside and near the royal castle that it feels like returning ¡®home¡¯ as I walk into the courtyard. Most of my knowledge and memories are from people who worked within these walls for a long the time. There are corpses littered everywhere (both moving and non-moving) and even though I¡¯ve never actually been here personally before, I have a tightening feeling in my chest as I observe the state of disrepair spreading around me. Just like everywhere around the city, nature has started taking over the surroundings. Shaking my head, I increase my pace which had slowed down as I was being sentimental. The northern quarter has mostly collapsed and all the entrances have caved in. I head right, aiming for the main entrance of the castle in the southwest. A glance to the sky tells me the moons have moved quite a bit and the horizon in the east is starting to brighten, but I should still have two hours before sunrise, maybe more. I find the main entrance to be intact and enter the castle. After leaving the graveyard, I was always keeping my spear ready. But by now, as I¡¯ve seen nothing but low level undead and sensed no living beings anywhere, I¡¯ve dropped my guard and just sloppily hold the spear next to my hip, wobbling and balancing it in my fingers casually as I walk. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything that wants to or can harm me in this entire capital, other than the approaching morning. Walking around the castle, I occasionally check inside rooms to see if there¡¯s anything of interest. All the windows seem to be broken and everything is covered in a layer of dust. I¡¯ve completely started ignoring the bones and corpses by now. The walls are mostly intact and there are fewer holes on the roof as I get closer to the southern end of the castle. A faint delicious smell reaches my nose. Blood. Instantly my senses sharpen to full attention. I had started to relax a bit too much. I take a proper grip on my spear and start walking fast towards the smell, making sure to move without making a sound. I hear an annoyingly loud grumble from below. ¡°Shut up!¡± I hiss at my stomach, as if it had a mind of its own. I follow the smell to the second and third floor ignoring everything else and realize it¡¯s wafting from near the third floor¡¯s southern balcony. The balcony is the highest point I can reach in the castle in its current state and it had been my destination from the beginning. The metal framed glass doors are open into the balcony. ¡®What could be giving such a strong and delicious smell?¡¯ I can barely hold myself from rushing in without care. I slowly creep closer with my spear and nails prepared and try to peek into the balcony. I feel some pebbles shift under my feet. *Crack* A flock of birds scatter about, scaring me, but by instinct I drop the spear, to jump into the balcony and manage to catch one bird by the neck and grab another by its wing. Before even realizing it, I¡¯ve sunk my teeth into the bird and suck hard. ¡®Oh~ ? How can anything taste this good? It¡¯s the first thing I¡¯ve tasted since being born but what a lovely taste it is. So sweet!¡¯ Way too quickly, within four gulps, the feast is over and I glance at the other bird, still flapping desperately in the ground as I grip its wing. I sink my teeth into its body without delay. ¡­ After a contented sigh I lick my lips and come back to my senses. Well, that was embarrassing, I completely lost myself there. But I feel so much better now. I hadn¡¯t even realized it before, but I had been feeling quite sluggish before compared to how I feel right now. Or is it just the strengthening effect blood has on us vampires? I¡¯m on my knees on the floor and take a look at my left hand, still holding the pigeon which was my first meal. My nails had dug into the bird and my grip had completely crushed its body by accident. It probably died instantly. The bird in my right hand is not in a much better looking shape. And it was not nearly enough, just two flimsy birds. I lick the blood off my left hand which had crushed the first bird and bite my lip in frustration. I just got a taste but it was not a proper meal. ¡®Try to think positively. At least it was something to eat.¡¯ Oh right, what scared the birds? And the smell of the blood couldn''t have come from the birds, right? I don''t think they had open wounds. I glance around me and see a half-eaten corpse of some unrecognizable little bird. ''What? I didn''t know pigeons eat small birds,'' I look at the remains of my first meal. Now that I think about it, they are very big for pigeons, and those beaks look sharp. Are they some mutations? ''Oh well,'' I glance behind me and see pieces of shattered glass next to my spear. So I stepped on pieces of broken glass panels from the balcony doors? I barely felt anything though. Speaking of which, running around the city with my bare feet didn¡¯t hurt either. Being a vampire really is convenient. I¡¯ll need to be more careful in the future though. I jumped at the food without any care for my safety as I still didn''t know what gave off the smell of blood, and I don¡¯t want to scare my prey away like I did with the shattered glass. While my hearing, smell and sight are exceptional, many wild animals have good senses too. I get up and a sudden wind blows my hair about as I look at the scenery spreading in front of me. I could use a higher view point, but I can at least see in all directions in the city up to the outer walls, except to the north. I look at the scenery for a while, mulling over my memories for the important locations and try to pinpoint as many of them as I can from here. The horizon is getting brigh in the east and first moon has already disappeared to the west. The second one will be gone in two to three hours as well. I probably don¡¯t have much time before morning, I should find shelter. I didn¡¯t get much of a meal but it should help me get over the first day. Burning the important locations and their directions into my mental map of the capital for future reference, I grab my spear and without forgetting to wrap my arm around my chest, jump off the balcony. Despite being in the third floor, I have no trouble landing safely on my feet without pain. I guess I¡¯ll go raid the royal armory for something to wear and spend the day there. Chapter 3 - The first day I quickly make my way towards the royal armory, hoping to find its doors open. They are large doors made of some harder-than-steel metal, so I¡¯m not confident in being able to break my way through with my current strength. I¡¯m not sure what material the doors actually are made of, the knowledge was limited to very few persons in the kingdom. The first material that comes to mind is mithril, but I find it hard to believe that even Cresta would be able to afford ordering huge doors made from it. If I have no luck with the royal armory, I¡¯ll head to the guards¡¯ station near the southern gate. It has the nearest large armory after the royal armory. The other guards¡¯ stations are further away and I¡¯m in a hurry. Most of the corpses around have been without as much as a thread on them and have been unarmed. I guess the cheap clothes the commoners wore or the finer materials that nobles and merchants wore have been shredded or dissolved by natural elements over the decades. And I refuse to even consider taking the rags that are on some of the rotting ghouls that have been born before fully decaying into skeletons. I can smell them from a hundred meters away! The corpses who used to be soldiers or guards before dying have some armor on them, but those are too heavily worn and damaged; I don¡¯t want to use them. It would be disgusting and immodest. I did consider looking for some blankets or curtains to use as makeshift clothes, but I haven¡¯t managed to find any that aren¡¯t completely ruined. I didn¡¯t go inside buildings before coming to the royal castle, but finding buildings with intact interiors are hard to come by. All the buildings in the capital are made partly or completely of stone. It¡¯s a magnificent display of national power. But even so, most of the lower and middle class¡¯s buildings are not very sturdy and suffered heavily from whatever caused the city¡¯s devastation. I should have explored the castle more thoroughly as it is the most likely place to have decent undamaged clothing, but catching the scent of food ruined that plan. I¡¯ll return later if I have no luck with the armories. As I¡¯m contemplating about the city¡¯s condition and my clothing, or lack thereof, I arrive at the royal barracks and examine the large building made of white stone that is some distance to the side from the barracks. ¡°Haa¡­ of course,¡± I sigh. The heavy looking silvery metal doors with the crest of Cresta¡¯s royal family (crest o¡¯ Cresta, get it? Ha¡­ha¡­) are firmly closed. They are locked shut with strong long-lasting magic and I¡¯m pretty sure that any people who had the authorization to unlock the doors are long gone from this country or this world. The locking magic could still last for centuries without renewing for all I know, since the dwarfs renewed the spell not long before the start of the war. Just in case, I walk to the doors and give each of them a firm push. Nothing happens, not even a creaking sound. I take a dozen or so steps back, leave my spear behind and dash. I charge against the doors with my shoulder first and close my eyes. It feels like I hit a wall, which is actually almost literally the case. The feeling is escorted by a loud bang and a throbbing pain in my shoulder as I get thrown to the ground some distance from the doors by the rebound. ¡®I¡¯m really light¡­¡¯ The doors stay firmly shut. There¡¯s a shallow dent the size of my upper arm in the other door but that¡¯s it. I claw at the door a few times but can only leave tiny scratches. If I kept doing that for a week or two without rest, I might get in. But I don¡¯t have the luxury of time. More skeletons and ghouls are gathering to the surroundings, lured by the loud sound, but as they notice me they turn back to where they came from. Sighing and rubbing my shoulder, I pick up the spear and start jogging towards the southern entrance I got in from.
As I get to the large guards¡¯ station, it¡¯s clearly getting brighter and I have to shield my eyes, but fortunately the city walls are still blocking the sunlight from entering the streets. I need to hurry. There are several pieces of armors made of metal or heavily processed leathers hung outside on racks and on the wall of the building. They are heavily rusted and worn or degraded, but seem to be in better condition than the ones on skeleton and ghoul soldiers and guards. And more importantly, they are much cleaner than the rags on the common ghouls. There are a few armed and armored ghouls and skeletons lurking nearby, but I pay them no mind and they ignore me in return. The equipment inside the building is more protected from the elements and should be in even better shape. The roof of the sturdy two-story building has large holes in it but the interior should be mostly intact. Stepping over the decayed remains of a wooden door, I scan around the large room. A heavy layer of dust covers the floor and surfaces. There are about twenty unmoving skeletons, all wearing armor, scattered around in varying positions. Some have probably died while sitting on benches or stools, but those have rotted and broken down over the years. There are stairs leading down at the far end of the room some 20 meters away. Next to them are second stairs leading to the second floor, but I have no interest on that floor as the roof had holes there, likely exposing me to the upcoming daylight. Not to mention that the floor has most likely been used just as living quarters or the officers¡¯ lounge. There¡¯s a doorway on the back wall, near the right corner, leading to a room at the back of the building. The main room doesn¡¯t seem to have anything interesting, so I search the basement first. It only contains the jail where I can find nothing of interest. The backroom on the first floor hits the jackpot. There seems to have been a steel door blocking access to the armory, but its hinges have rusted to the point that the door has fallen inwards with its own weight. There are hundreds of armors and weapons densely placed in wooden boxes and hanging on racks and the walls. Everything here is covered in a thick layer of dust as well. There are no windows or holes on the roof of the room so the equipment is in good condition, considering how long they have been untouched without maintenance. There are no sources of light other than the light trickling in from the main room behind me, but that¡¯s not a problem to me. The equipment seems to have ranged from okay to quite nice quality back in their better days. The armors and weapons made of metals, mostly steel, have varying amounts of rust on them but seem to be in usable condition. I pick up a few swords of different sizes and try swinging them around for a bit before placing them back. These are probably more reliable than my ¡®Improvised Rusty Iron Spear of the Graveyard¡¯s Fence?¡¯, but I¡¯ll think about my weaponry more after I¡¯ve taken care of my decency. There are longbows and crossbows in the armory, or at least what remains of them, but they are in absolutely useless condition. The wooden shafts of spears are thoroughly rotten as well, so they are pretty useless. I can¡¯t find any spears with metal shafts. The leather and cloth armors are quite torn, worn and degraded, especially at the seams. But their condition is very good compared to anything I¡¯ve seen anywhere so far. Many of them are full of mold, but fortunately not all of them have been ruined by it. I can make this work. I spend a good while digging through the various boxes and searching the racks for some gambesons and the softest and thinnest feeling pieces of cloth armors I can find, with as little mold on them as possible. I also spend a good while coughing and sneezing at the amount of dust that gets thrown and lifted into the air by my actions. After finding the armors I deem to be suitable for my needs, I sweep a sizable area on the floor from dust and go dust the cloths and myself in the jail. Some more sneezes later I return to the armory with myself and the armors almost dustless and place them on the clean area on the floor. ¡°Time to get to work!¡° I give myself a cheer of encouragement. I carefully use my nails to cut the softer armors into wide straps and pieces. Then I take some sturdier looking ones and cut them into thin strips to use them as threads. I cut holes through the edges of the wide straps and pieces, and use the thin ¡®threads¡¯ to tie them together, making them into a long enough single piece of cloth. This will act as a comfortable enough temporary makeshift chest wrap. Emphasis on temporary and makeshift. In similar fashion I also make two things that try to resemble panties. This whole process took way too long to my liking, and the end result doesn¡¯t even look or feel very comfortable. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll make a career of tailoring. Or who knows; I technically have infinite time in my hands unless I screw up somehow. It could be interesting to try out different jobs.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. But even this improvised underwear of the ¡®pitiable grade¡¯ quality is better than having rough leather armor in direct contact with my privates. I at least thought that far ahead, before even trying to put on any armor. It¡¯s a result of my own thinking, not some memories or random knowledge. ¡®Aren¡¯t I smart? Fufu.¡¯ Now that I think about it, I wonder how long the tailoring actually took. I probably spent the morning and a good half of the day on it. I peek outside from the armory into the main room. There are a few strands of light hitting the floor, shining through the gaps in the roof, or technically through floor of the second floor. I¡¯m so lucky that the armory¡¯s roof is undamaged. Beyond the entrance and the windows, it¡¯s almost blindingly bright. I have to squint to avoid hurting my eyes and getting a headache. ¡®What a hatefully bright light! Now I¡¯m annoyed, reminds me of the bright lights during my memory transitions.¡¯ It didn¡¯t occur to me before, but if my knowledge is correct, I don¡¯t need to sleep being a vampire. Speaking of which, I don¡¯t even feel tired one bit. I¡¯m not sure if I even can sleep, should I wish to do so. I guess I¡¯ll have to find out one of these days. Well, at least I spent half of the day without being bored. I can imagine how fast days will get boring at this rate, if I can¡¯t sleep through the day or find a way to survive in daylight. I¡¯m not brave enough to test how well clothing protects me against sunlight on my first day. It¡¯s not like I have means to cover my head and hands right now anyway. The only gloves I can find here, whether armored or not, are too big for my hands. And I would absolutely need to make sure my entire head is protected from sunlight, I don¡¯t feel like taking such risks yet. And I don¡¯t know if my hair is sun resistant and could act as a shield for example. I gather some of my long hair in my hand and bring it in front of my face. It¡¯s ruby red and has a silky feeling to it. Nope, I don¡¯t think it is daylight resistant. And it would be a shame to burn or cut such pretty hair as a test. I¡¯ll need some kind of eye protection as well if I plan to move outside, a veil or something for example. If every day is going to be as bright as today, I¡¯d become blind after a while of looking or staying outside. ¡­ After contemplating about my nemesis, the day, for a while, I put on my new underwear and proceed to choose a light leather armor that doesn''t look too restricting. It turns out I can¡¯t be too picky about the design because of my height and body shape. It takes me a while to find armor that fits my body somewhat comfortably. Regarding my body; I was wondering about my height while I was in and leaving the graveyard. For a while I had feared I might be stuck at the height of a child for the rest of my life. Vampires don¡¯t grow after all. Well, it turns out the coffins in the mausoleum were just very large. I¡¯ve been looking at the skeletons and ghouls wandering around and compared my height to theirs. It¡¯s not easy to tell from a distance, but it seems like I¡¯m shorter than average but I should still be of a reasonable height for an adult woman, by human standards anyway. I can¡¯t be too sure until I get a chance to measure myself accurately, but I reckon myself to be somewhere around 160 cm, not shorter at least. Most intelligent races living on this continent are larger than humans though. Let¡¯s not even bring up monsters. ¡­ Suddenly I have a feeling that I¡¯ll be looking up a lot once I start meeting the living.
Can¡¯t it be night already? I¡¯ve been getting increasingly bored after I finished dusting most of the interesting looking armors in the armory, fitting them and sweeping the rest of the floor clean. I peek outside the armory. The shadows outside seem to be getting longer, I guess I don¡¯t have to wait for much longer, two hours or so, maybe. No visible rays of daylight seem to be pushing through the gaps on the roof anymore. Oh, I wonder how the other undead are coping with daytime. All undead are creatures of the night but I don¡¯t think skeletons, ghouls, and the like just spontaneously burn to cinders if they walk in the daylight as I would. Sun magic will kill them, but they should be capable of moving during the day according to my knowledge. How does that work? Should I take a peek outside and check if there are any of them lurking nearby and what they are doing? Before going into the main room I take a small steel helm and put it on my head, just in case. Don¡¯t want to risk getting a hole burned through my head from through the roof for being careless. I¡¯m also wearing worn-out leather breastplate and leather thigh armor. The armor itself is mostly for modesty, and a bit for any physical protection I might or might not need. The type is for mobility. I couldn¡¯t find boots of my size, not that I need any for now. I can move around just fine on bare feet. I step into the main room and immediately take two steps back into the armory. Blinking a couple of times, my confused mind tries to understand what it registered from my sight. Unsure if I was just seeing things, I carefully walk back into the room. I didn¡¯t see wrong; there¡¯s a skeleton standing to my right, facing away from the entrance at the back wall to my right. It stands some ten meters away, near the stairs leading to the second floor. It¡¯s wearing a rusty chainmail belonging to the capital¡¯s gatekeepers and holds a steel longsword in one hand. If it ever had any non-metallic clothes or a helmet before, it no longer has them. I count the unmoving skeletons lying on the floor. Their numbers have not changed. How did I not hear it coming in? How long as it been here? Did it come in when I was focused on my time killing cleaning? The skeleton notices me and turns its head at me, without turning its body. It does nothing afterwards. *Staaaaare* I lose the staring contest after a while and my gaze lands on the floor. Curiosity starts swelling inside me. ¡®Should I experiment a bit?¡® These lesser undead with low intelligence don¡¯t seem to mind me. I know they have some intelligence as they react to sounds and can carry weapons, but I haven¡¯t seen them doing anything in particular. Is it a thing like only hating the living or something? I know ghouls are pretty different in that they eat corpses, but even they ignore me. I should look into that as well. Skeletons don¡¯t eat anything. Zombies on the other hand eat only living beings, though I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen any. Zombies are supposed to look, fresher, than ghouls. I grab my improvised iron spear from the armory. Let¡¯s try its reactions. ¡°Hey you, skeleton guy. Go up the stairs!¡± I first try giving it a command, although my soft voice is anything but commanding. Nothing to be done about that. The skeleton just keeps staring at me. Well, this is awkward. I try giving a few more different commands, calling it a guard, undead and a gatekeeper, to see if it reacts to the way it¡¯s being called. Doesn¡¯t seem to make any difference, I get no reaction. I step closer so that the skeleton is within my spear¡¯s reach and pull the spear back, mimicking a thrusting stance. Still no reaction, not even a defensive one. Hmm. I relax a bit and hit the skeleton¡¯s longsword hard from above with the spear. The weapon clatters to the floor along with the fingers of the skeleton. ¡°Oops, did I use too much force!? I only meant to knock the sword down, not to break your hand. Sorry.¡± The skeleton finally stops staring at me and looks at the sword on the floor. It kneels down with fluid motion and tries to pick the sword up with its broken hand, failing miserably. The so natural looking movement stops awkwardly for a moment. It looks at its right hand, which is missing all five fingers. It swiftly picks the sword up with its left hand and stands back up, still lacking any hostility towards me. I¡¯m shaking. It¡¯s just too much. Somehow managing to swallow back my laughter, I hit at the sword again, this time more carefully. The skeleton doesn¡¯t let go. Oh? I guess it does have a proper grip on it. Now I dare to get closer as it is still ignoring my actions. I grab its left hand and pry the sword from its hand and throw it outside. ¡®Am I a bully now?¡¯ I guess its strength is around the level of a human man? I can¡¯t judge accurately since I haven¡¯t met any humans and my memories aren¡¯t reliable, as was proven when I broke my iron spear off from the graveyard¡¯s fence. The skeleton¡¯s gaze follows the sword outside and it tries to walk after it, but doesn¡¯t get far as I grab its shoulder to stop it. I spin it around, take a step back and stretch out my iron spear towards it. It takes it with its remaining left hand. ¡°Oh, you took the spear! Interesting,¡± I exclaim, for no reason other than my excitement and surprise. Again, it does nothing afterwards. The grip it has on the spear seems a bit awkward and unbalanced. It doesn¡¯t seem to have the intelligence to fix its hold on it with only one hand. I¡¯m pretty sure I can spend the rest of the day waiting for the evening with this guy without worries about getting bored! I rush into the armory and bring forth a bunch of weapons and armors. I try equipping and unequipping Mr. Skeleton in various ways and try to find the logic behind the choices it makes. After a while I stop what I¡¯m doing as a somewhat disturbing thought surfaces in my mind. ¡®Is it just me, or does this look like I¡¯m actually playing dress-up with an undead skeleton as if it was a full-size doll?¡¯ I look at my stretched out arms holding a leather breastplate towards the forcefully seated skeleton. I shake my head to clear up these unproductive thoughts and continue my¡­ experiments. Seems like it¡¯s unable to remove or put on clothes or armor. It takes the nearest object that it identifies as a proper weapon. I¡¯m not quite sure about what works as a weapon in its mind, but it won¡¯t pick up a sharpened wooden pole, broken crossbow or a steel helmet as a weapon. It stands up normally if it falls down and can walk up and down stairs, although I have to push it since it seems to have no motivation to move anywhere on its own, unless it goes after a weapon. It seems to have flawless night vision like I do. It can¡¯t reattach its bones, so missing fingers or arms are gone for good. I don¡¯t know what is keeping the bones together, but does it require a surprising amount of force before they rip off from the main body. I would assume it¡¯s significantly harder to rip off the limb of a living being with flesh on its bones, but again I have no comparison point and despite vampires having high regeneration speed, I¡¯m too much of a coward to experiment on myself. Who the hell would want to rip off their own limbs!? I¡¯m not a masochist, you know. I don¡¯t even know if my toughness is comparable to anything human-like, as I didn¡¯t feel much at all from stepping onto glass with bare feet. The skeleton¡¯s bones are surprisingly tough against sharp, pin-pointed attacks, but mysteriously brittle against even slightly blunt weapons. The bones felt harder than steel when I stabbed them with the sharp point of my spear, but weaker than my thoroughly rusted iron spear when I hit the bones with the blunt yet thin end of it. Looking outside, I notice that it¡¯s become night or late evening. ¡°Wow, time sure flew fast,¡± I speak to my skeleton friend. I¡¯ve noticed I¡¯ve started talking more with the skeleton as the hours have gone by even though it doesn¡¯t seem to understand speech. I wonder if it¡¯s a sign of loneliness. I hope it¡¯s only that and I¡¯m not crazy or something. I¡¯ll have to get moving again. Food is still the number one priority. Two birds¡¯ worth of blood in a night is bad. I probably can¡¯t sustain myself for long with such a low amount. Afterwards I want to search the royal castle deeper, maybe look for books and better clothes. I should also check the northern side of the capital if I have time tonight. Maybe I¡¯ll get more hints on what has happened around here after the Wave of Death. Looking down, Mr. Skeleton is lying on the floor with its right arm and both legs missing. It¡¯s staring at the dagger on the floor closest to it but can¡¯t reach it. Well, time to part with my first ever friend I guess. I¡¯m curious about what keeps moving it. I cut the spine in half at the middle and it seems to have no effect. Cutting it from the neck stops the movement of its remaining arm, but mysteriously enough the skull still rolls towards the dagger as I move it around. Wow, I didn¡¯t expect for it to still be able to move around. It looks so weird though. The control point is the skull after all, as I expected. After I crack its skull, Mr. Skeleton no longer reacts to anything. I look at the cracked skull in silence and a single tear falls down my cheek. Not. I perform the Crestan salute. I grab two long steel daggers from the armory, slide them into sheaths on my belt, one on each side, and take my (t)rusty spear and head outside. I walk briskly out and through the southern main gate to look for food outside the city. Chapter 4 - Realizations A glance to the sky tells me it¡¯s already close to midnight, so I have maybe five to six hours before I have to seek shelter. The cobblestone road leaving the city connects to a larger dirt main road in a T-crossing about two kilometers ahead. For the moment I don¡¯t sense anything other than the movement of some quietly clacking skeletons and the sound of some nightly insects. I dash to the crossroad. The main road, which used to be in so well maintained in the past, is now just a very wide trail mostly taken over by invading grass and various weeds. It leads directly to east and west. To my right, which would be the west, I can see the road connecting to another crossroad, which in turn splits to lead either to the western gate or to the hill overlooking the capital from the southwest. I¡¯ve ridden over that hill five times in my memories. Following that road should lead me through a couple of smaller villages, until reaching Fort Dennis about 200 kilometers away. Or what¡¯s left of it, anyway. Only 27 people from the fort survived of the original 10,000, after the walls were breached by the Paladins of Theocracy of the Sun and the sorcerers and soldiers of Magisus rushed in. I can¡¯t know if it has been rebuilt, demolished or something else since then, of course. But going there would take me some hours, even if I can run at high speed without getting exhausted. It¡¯s not my objective for now. There are signs of a smaller road leading south from here, but the trail is well camouflaged by grass. I guess I¡¯ll check that way another night. But tonight I¡¯ll head for the woods beyond the hill in the southwest, which the main road passes through. It should have the best chances of providing me with some food in the form of animals. The hill itself is about ten kilometers from here, so the woods shouldn¡¯t be much further away. ¡­ Since I can finally dash at full speed thanks to my clothing, it doesn¡¯t take me long at all to run to the woods, some ten kilometers from the southern gate. The edge of the woods has spread further uphill over the decades. It now almost reaches the top of the hill. The woods seem to get dense quite fast, so I leave my iron spear at the edge of the forest, stabbed into the ground. It would get impractical to carry it around. I don¡¯t think anyone would find and steal it from here. I¡¯ll just try to get practice using my daggers instead. Although my fangs and nails make for good weapons, I should still try to learn some proficiency with some normal weapons. When I eventually meet some humans or other races, I¡¯ll want to be able to act naturally. Cresta might be a Moon magic using country with broad mindset towards different elements, but even they see vampires and the undead as dangerous. I don¡¯t think most living beings would like the idea of tagging along with someone, who might suck them dry the moment they get careless or their companion gets hungry. I wouldn¡¯t like it either if I had to travel with a holy Paladin who, for whatever reason, would want to befriend me. No matter how friendly-looking, a predator is dangerous. And unless something has changed over the last decades, I¡¯m quite sure the rest of humanity dislikes Moon magic and the undead quite deeply, some of them bordering on hatred, such as the Theocracy. So I¡¯ll have to learn to hide my¡­ infamous traits and abilities, the best I can. Well, for the time being, there¡¯s only a small chance to run into anyone anyway, unless I find a way to move outside during the day. ¡­ I go into the nightly woods, which appear only slightly dark to my eyes despite barely any moonlight reaching down to ground level. I slow down as the foliage thickens in effort to avoid scaring away potential prey. The tall evergreen trees grow their branches so densely, that it would be difficult to use them as steps. I make less noise by using my supernatural agility to carefully hop around onto rocks, trunks of fallen trees and animal trails et cetera with less undergrowth. I keep hearing various nocturnal birds, but they are hiding too well for me to spot them in the trees. 15 minutes into wandering slowly and aimlessly around forest, I start getting frustrated by the lack of prey. ¡®Are nocturnal animals really this rare here? Or do I just suck at being sneaky?¡¯ My stomach¡¯s starting to growl again. That¡¯s when come into a small opening in the forest, full of bushes heavy with ripe and delicious looking, small reddish berries. I¡¯m not quite sure if my vague memories are correct, but I think they are called raspberries. They were being sold sometimes in Estmoor¡¯s market. Vampires are supposed to only feed on blood, but I shouldn¡¯t die from eating these, right? At least we pure vampires should be safe. I¡¯ll just¡­ try a bit. I¡¯m getting famished and they look so good. I pick a handful of the berries and examine them closer. They are very soft and don¡¯t smell much of anything. With uncertain feelings I throw a single berry in my mouth crushing and swallowing it without delay. My mind reels as I cough and start spitting the horribly bitter taste out of my mouth. My next five minutes are spent in what would probably look like some lunatic barbarian¡¯s dance from a third party¡¯s perspective, as I walk and stagger about, coughing and spitting, while rubbing the back of my hand against my tongue. Eventually I try biting my own arm to wash over the taste with my own blood. It¡¯s pretty tasteless but effectively washes over the horrible aftertaste from the berry. I scream some profanities into the forest in frustration, not in a state of mind to care about scaring away any potential blood bags. Okay, any normal foods are out. I probably won¡¯t get sick from them or die, but I don¡¯t want to experience that again. This¡­ food problem seems to be a problem to consider in the future as well, if I ever want to try blending into daywalker societies. In a very bad mood I dash away from the berry bushes of evil.
I spent the next two hours or so furiously running around the woods, getting to know the area and searching for something edible by relying on my superior night vision, smell and hearing. During that time I found a total of three large rabbits, four minks, a skunk which I avoided far and wide after getting a very unpleasant surprise, and two foxes. All of them were very delicious, although I didn¡¯t try the skunk. My eyes still get blurry as I think of the smell. I could just not breathe while catching and eating them, but this one caught me by surprise and I¡¯m not sure if the stink would latch onto my armor if I get too close. I think I¡¯ll be better off avoiding them in the future like human food, but for a different reason. I¡¯ll pass on catching minks for now as well, even if I get the chance to hunt them. They have so little blood it takes me only a couple of seconds to suck them dry, when I lose myself to the bloodlust. The minks are also so nimble and thin that they are hard to catch, making them not worthy of the effort. With bloodlust I refer to when I pretty much lose control of myself at the sight, smell or taste of blood. It seems to happen more easily if I¡¯m hungry, because I exerted some control of myself when I was feeding on my last couple of catches, after several small feeding sessions.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The rabbits were only slightly better than minks, but are still too small and only hold enough blood to give me a taste. I wanted to practice using my daggers while hunting tonight, but the rabbits and minks weren¡¯t really the best targets for that, with their small size. I ended up hunting them with my claws and raw grip power, which is quite inelegant in my opinion. The two foxes had more blood and I got my first awkward kills with a dagger. I accidentally almost obliterated the first one I found, by throwing my other dagger at it with force, in my excitement. I lost a lot of its blood as a result and learned from the mistake, killing the second fox I found later by stabbing it calmly. I could use the pelts of the animals for clothes, but I don¡¯t have anything to carry the materials in so for now, thinking about it is pointless. Speaking of using the materials from the animals, obviously I didn¡¯t bother tasting the meat of any prey I killed. I already learned my lesson. It¡¯s a bit embarrassing thinking back on what happened with the berries. ¡­ With my belly more satisfied than last night, I reach the road going through the middle of the woods and check the sky for time. I should have at least two more hours to spare, but I¡¯ve fed fairly well tonight. Guess I¡¯ll start heading back. I walk to the edge of the woods and leave the road to grab my spear before returning to the capital. I return to the road with my spear and skip towards the top of the hill, humming a random tune while grinning and imagining the view I will get upon reaching it. The city was always so beautiful in my memories when looking over from the hill, but it had slipped my mind when I came here in search for food. I had forgotten to look back before entering the forest. I don¡¯t really hold any special feelings towards the capital itself, but the memory of the sight and my memories regarding the capital in general are mostly nice. As I reach the top of the hill and look at the view around the capital, my excited grin is extinguished in a flash and turns into expression bordering horror. I feel lightheaded and have to lean on the spear to support myself. I had expected to see the familiar plains surrounding the beautiful, white-grey capital built of stone. Well, the city is in ruins so I expected it to look significantly worse from its glory days, but it should have still been a nice sight. How optimistic that had been. My eyes are staring at the unbelievable sight opening wide in north of the capital. Where there used to be similar plains, like in other directions, and some far away mountains and forests, now opens a gigantic hole in the ground. Or maybe I should call it a crater, because it¡¯s filled with water. Water, just water as far as the eye can see, from northwest to northeast, with a few small islands visible far in the horizon. ¡°Wh-wh-what¡­¡± a whisper escapes my lips and my eyes dart towards south as well to make sure I hadn¡¯t just imagined seeing the plains in that direction earlier tonight. The south is still plains, to my relief, though that feeling is greatly overshadowed by dread. ¡°What the hell¡­ happened here? Is¡­ this the result of the [Wave of Death]¡± I speak in a shaky tone to nobody in particular, just to calm myself. ¡°The spell must have failed somehow. Horribly, beyond horribly. I can¡¯t think any other reason. It¡¯s just a death spell, not¡­ whatever this is.¡± Somewhere in the back of my mind I feel like I have a clue as to why the spell must have gone wrong, with my understanding of how magic works in general. Strong, mixed feelings of confusion, anger and frustration, with a tinge of sadness, are swirling in my mind. ¡°What were you thinking, casting something like this!?¡± I scream out in the general direction of the capital and the crater. The wind brings forth an unfamiliar salty smell from the north. I probably hadn¡¯t noticed the sea¡¯s smell before because of the overpowering smell of death and because the wind was coming from the southwest. There shouldn¡¯t be any large bodies of water north of here. And the shortest distance to the northern coast is at least 600 kilometers. If this really is the same northern sea, it would mean this crater has a minimum diameter of 600 ¨C 700 kilometers, assuming the old Tower of Magic Research to be the epicenter. I can¡¯t see the end of the crater in the north or the northeast. I can at least see its edge towards the northwest and as it turns towards north, eventually disappearing into the horizon. No wonder the capital is dead. The northern fifth of the city doesn¡¯t even exist; it¡¯s just cliffs falling down a couple of hundred meters into the sea. The city has only survived intact because it¡¯s built on solid bedrock, has sturdy walls protecting it and has many stone buildings. I never noticed any of this while being inside the city, probably because I¡¯ve only been in the eastern, southern and southwestern districts and the castle that is in the middle of the city, over the past two nights. I found it weird how all buildings were damaged, but the tremor caused by¡­ this, must have done the damage. And the shockwave has scraped off the tops of the tallest buildings that reach higher than the walls. I would¡¯ve noticed the crater if I had been able to climb the northern side of the castle, but it had collapsed. I let myself collapse onto my butt on the spot and start thinking about how the existence of this crater changes things. My expectations of the history of the past decades were off. And I have to readjust my plans on what to do now. My old plans are as shattered and obliterated as I imagine the remains of Tower of Magic Research to be. I had been holding onto small and na?ve hope that the death in the capital would only stretch north from here, towards the Tower. If just the crater is that large, I can imagine how much this has affected the surroundings. Even in the best case, where the spell actually failed so catastrophically that it ¡®fortunately¡¯ wasn¡¯t even a death spell but just a huge explosion, the shockwave alone should have killed everyone much further than where this crater ends. But I don¡¯t believe in best case scenarios, not in this situation anyway. I remember clearly seeing something dark swirling from the spell, so it did have the element of darkness to it. It couldn¡¯t have been just a pure explosion. In a worse case, it still worked like a death spell with an additional explosion effect or whatever caused this crater, and indiscriminately killed everyone within a large area, up to or even past the entire kingdom¡¯s borders. The nearest foreign border from here, from before the war started, should be about 250 kilometers in the west: the Magisus kingdom. There are various in-between scenarios as well, but I don¡¯t believe I can find any settlements of the living within 200 ¨C 300 kilometers from the capital, even though it has been decades since the actual event happened. That¡¯s because the lingering Moon element mana in the area is quite dangerous in large quantities for those who are not proficient in the use of Moon magic, which most people are not. Moon mana corrupts easily if one is not used ho handling it. Corruption¡¯s lovely side effects can be any of the following: death, mutation, madness or getting turned into a literal monster. The last one is probably worse than death. Crestans are the only humans who I believed and foreigners suspected to be capable of using Moon magic commonly without problems. Past tense, because I¡¯m not so sure anymore if there are any of them left alive after I¡¯ve witnessed this sight. Earlier I used the term ¡®a worse case¡¯, because I don¡¯t even want to start imagining the worst case scenario. Nope, I don¡¯t want to think of it. There are obviously still living beings existing on this continent as I haven¡¯t seen many animal corpses and I¡¯ve seen small animals this close to the epicenter. But that doesn¡¯t prove much about the state of civilization. ¡­ I pull myself up after thinking about various scenarios and plans, and start quietly running towards the open western gate of the city as the horizon in the east is starting to brighten significantly. There are no signs of my earlier good mood from having my first decent meal. I feel like shit, like I¡¯ve been splashed with mud water, even though I¡¯m quite clean, all things considered. I take a beeline to the royal castle as it¡¯s quite some distance away and I still have things I want to do there. It¡¯s decently intact compared to other buildings, so as long as I¡¯m careful of windows and holes in the walls and the roof, I should be safe there for the day. ¡­ I arrive to the western castle gate, which is closed. ¡°Well, might as well try this, I¡¯m more strapped for time than last night,¡± I say to the large iron portcullis, as I drop my spear to the other side through the latticed grille, grab it firmly, and lift up. Escorted by loud clangs and creaks, the portcullis slowly opens. I have to get a new gripping point a couple of times as I keep lifting the gate up. After lifting it up to a bit above my head¡¯s height, I slip under the gate and allow it to drop behind me with a humongous bang that reverberates in the surroundings for a moment. I involuntarily let out a hiss in pain as my ears hurt from the noise. The lattices are a twisted on the points where I lifted it from. There was quite a bit of friction when lifting and I would guesstimate the gate¡¯s weight to be 20 to 40 tons, judging from its size. It¡¯s vague, but I¡¯m not a professional on the subject, okay? It felt quite heavy, but nothing I couldn¡¯t handle. I would probably have trouble lifting it with one hand though. ¡®My strength really is insane¡­ and I haven¡¯t even eaten that much.¡¯ Just how strong will I eventually get, if I feed on proper life essence from intelligent and larger beings such as humans or elves, and absorb their strength and experiences? It¡¯s a bit unnerving to think about. The sky is getting quite bright, forcing me to shield my eyes again, so I grab my spear and rush inside the castle. There are a few places inside the castle I want to check later, but for now I¡¯ll just look for a place where I can make sure to be hidden from my hateful nemesis and hopefully not be bored to life. ¡°Ahh, damn it, ¨C¡± I look back outside ¡°¡­I should¡¯ve brought a couple of more skeletons to experiment with to pass the time! I still didn¡¯t try everything I wanted to with Mr. Skeleton. ¡° Oh well, no point in crying over spilled blood. I flounce towards my objective, the royal library deeper inside the castle, hoping it to be still intact. Chapter 5 - Magic The royal library is in the eastern side of the castle. It¡¯s been dug about half a floor below ground level, so it should be in decent shape compared to rest of the castle unless the tremors have damaged it badly. I can have some hope, right? My mind starts wandering to places as I¡¯m heading towards the library from my memories. My thoughts keep steering to the shocking view that opens some kilometers north from here. The image of the man who ordered the catastrophe floats to my mind: King Jonathan the First. I had come to quite like the man who cared for his subjects, was easily amused and didn¡¯t have a very kingly air to him. Not that I ever met him personally. He¡¯s probably dead too. These memories I have make me feel more than a little conflicted about this all. This place feels like home, despite being totally foreign at the same time. I feel nostalgic while thinking about people who are long since dead and are complete strangers to me. I feel weirdly sympathetic for the corpses scattered all over the capital, despite them being just lesser undead or just bones, with nothing left inside them that would identify them as whoever they were while they still were living Cresta¡¯s citizens. Without even realizing, my feet start leading me towards the king¡¯s work office on the third floor. I wonder how he would feel if he knew what his actions have resulted in. He wanted to save his citizens, but instead ended up wiping his kingdom off the map overnight. Of course, he couldn¡¯t have known that in advance, but still... The sound of my footsteps are getting somewhat softened by the dust on the stone floor. I turn to the familiar hallway, which is in surprisingly good shape. The sun, Solas, is still low, but is starting to shine down to the city below, behind the broken windows of the castle. I¡¯m on the western side of the castle so I don¡¯t have to worry about the sun shining in for a while. I turn my face back towards the place I¡¯ve visited several times, and find the door to the king¡¯s work office to be open. I tilt my head in confusion while walking closer. They were never left open in my memories. Has someone been here since then? The remains of the two Royal Guards who were always standing on both sides of the door are lying faithfully on their assigned posts. The heavy armor and broadsword are in surprisingly good condition, same for the staff. It must be some special wood of some sort to last in so good shape after all these decades. I wouldn¡¯t even be surprised if it¡¯s of elven origin. I would take the sword as a replacement for my spear, but it¡¯s a bit too large to be practical to lug around. It¡¯s over two thirds of my height. I¡¯ll rather stick to my spear, which is has better reach and is thinner, making it easier to carry. And I have the daggers for very close combat. But couldn¡¯t I use the staff? It has almost the same reach as the spear, being two meters long. It¡¯s slightly thicker but not too much. Even if it¡¯s meant to be used for magic, it can probably be used as a decent blunt weapon since it has lasted decades without damage. If I need something sharp I can just use my claws or the daggers. The staff is also much better looking than my rusted iron pole, with its beautiful silvery inlays. The thicker end has some kind of fist sized and hard looking blue crystal orb, firmly attached into a shiny bluish metal setting. The looks are a totally important factor! I wonder what has been used for the carvings, it looks like silver but I don¡¯t think it is that. It probably wouldn¡¯t look this good after such a long time if it was just silver. I¡¯ll have to look for an expert sometime to appraise the staff and its materials. ¡°Sorry,¡± I mumble to the corpse, while I switch its staff with my spear. I had gotten a bit attached to my first ever ¡®self-made weapon¡¯, but I¡¯ll eventually have to let it go anyway. It¡¯s not a proper weapon. I step away from the skeleton and walk into the work office. The room is empty, not to my surprise. It¡¯s difficult to assess from the layer of dust if anyone has walked here¡­ I can maybe see a couple of trails with less dust across the room, but it¡¯s hard to say. Regardless, it¡¯s been a long time if someone was here since the Wave of Death. The desk doesn¡¯t have anything on it. I glance at the bookshelves on the left wall and both the shelves and their books seem to be in quite bad shape and nobody seems to have touched them. Well, I guess I got excited over nothing when the door was open. Before finally going to the royal library, I decide to check the personal bedrooms of the royal family on this floor since I¡¯m nearby anyway and the throne room in the first floor. Something¡¯s nagging at me in the back of my head but I can¡¯t quite place my finger on what is it. It has struck me as a bit odd, that there are no undead anywhere inside the castle. All of them are just immobile corpses (there¡¯s a lot of them), unless I go to the courtyard. Well, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ve seen any undead inside other buildings either, other than Mr. Skeleton. Maybe they seek to go inside only during daytime? I suppose I¡¯ll find out soon enough, since day is approaching. ¡­ I find only two corpses inside the Crown Prince¡¯s chambers. One of them is the prince himself, deducing from the jewelry on the skeleton. The other is probably his maid or adjutant. I bow before leaving the room and close the doors behind me. I stop for a moment in front of the princess¡¯s bedroom, hesitating. I don¡¯t want to enter. I have a feeling like I need to keep these doors closed or something would break. I don¡¯t know what would break, but something would, maybe. It¡¯s already enough for me to know she has died at the Tower. She seemed like a fun and nice person, though she had some silly habits. Thinking about them brings a smile to my face. Skipping the princess''s room, I head for the last bedroom. The king and queen¡¯s chambers only have two corpses, but I can¡¯t identify either of them. They are lying right next to the door so I believe them to be guards or something. However, they are not the regular Royal Guards, since they are lacking the very distinctive armor or weapons. They have beautifully crafted short swords next to them. ¡­ I have to move to the throne room much more carefully, which is a bit further away and two floors lower, as the tendrils of my shiny nemesis are invading inside more frequently in this more damaged portion of the castle. The double doors of the throne room are open and there are several sets of Royal Guards¡¯ armors with their corpses scattered on the floor. There are various other less-clothed corpses as well along with their staffs. I can see the queen¡¯s corpse, with a crown on its skull, sitting on the left side of the king¡¯s empty throne. Frowning and scratching the back of my head, I look at the scene for a moment. Sighing, I bow at the queen, turn on my heels and start finally going to check if the royal library is still in okay condition. I took quite a detour overall, so it will take a while to get there while avoiding spots where the sun shines into. My eyes are getting a bit irritated at the brightness. So I couldn¡¯t find what I was looking for after all.
I¡¯m standing in front of two beautifully decorated white wooden doors, almost four meters in height and two in width. Looks like the library¡¯s doors are intact, at the very least. I hope the inside is in as good shape, I¡¯d really like to learn more about the world and myself. The ¡®book of knowledge¡¯ inside my head still has many chapters ripped off of it. I push the doors in. The doors feel really light (when will I learn?) and what opens in my eyes is not the library I expected, but a semi-transparent yet solid looking black wall, right behind the doors. ¡°Eh!?¡± with a shocked yelp I stumble forward as I had put way too much weight and force into my push. My eyes close and I throw my arms instinctively forward to prevent my face from slamming into the wall. I regain my balance after a couple of meters, without hitting a wall. ¡°Huh?¡± opening one eye carefully, I notice I¡¯m inside the library. A quick glance tells me there are no windows here and the ceiling seems intact. I look behind me, eyes wide open with confusion. The black¡­ wall thing is still there, barely visible in front of the doors, which had closed down on their own as they should. It doesn¡¯t look nearly as obvious as it did from the other side. ¡°What the..?¡± I carefully stretch my hand towards the doors. My hand slips through the dark veil, sending ripples through its surface. ¡°Is this¡­ shadow magic? But why?¡± A realization pops to my mind and I spin around, scanning the inside of the library frantically in more detail. Against my expectations, I can¡¯t see anybody. I¡¯d thought the person or thing that is behind this magic would be here with me. I breathe out, as tension leaves me. I¡¯m not actually sure if I¡¯m relieved or disappointed about being alone now. It¡¯s probably better that I¡¯m alone, but I had felt a strange sense of exhilaration at the possibility of getting to talk with someone. Just to make sure that nobody¡¯s hiding here, I walk around the room and check between and behind all the rows of shelves. There are some pieces of the ceiling on the floor and the shelves, which leads me to realize that the roof has been patched up on the northern end of the library with seemingly random pieces of wood and metal. I¡¯m not sure how they have been attached, but it¡¯s a really crude looking patchwork.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Someone has definitely been here. There¡¯s quite a bit of dust everywhere, but there are signs that things have been moved around and someone has walked here over the past years and months, maybe even recent weeks. Some of the few desks and tables only have a thin layer of dust on them. Most of the books seem to be in a fairly good condition. There are some piles of books laid next to a smaller round table near the corner of the room. The library itself is quite large, probably about 50 ¨C 70 meters in each direction with a height of six meters. I can''t help but wonder just how valuable this place is, considering how rare and expensive books are. There are a few ladders scattered around, leaning on the shelves. This place holds all the history of the kingdom and probably a lot of other hard to come by knowledge. I can finally fill the blanks still left in my knowledge about the world, this continent and maybe most importantly, myself. I hope there are some books that give me more details about pure vampires or vampires in general so I don¡¯t have to¡­ experiment on myself. And maybe other undead too, it will be faster to read than to do what I did with Mr. Skeleton. It¡¯ll probably take quite a long time, even if I don¡¯t bother with more specific and detailed books, since this library is quite huge. Oh yes, and this library should also have a good amount of books related to magic. I¡¯ll probably end up spending several nights and days here. I¡¯ll go hunt at night and read in the day. Yes, that¡¯ll be the plan. What a treasure trove, I¡¯m glad this place is intact! If only the royal armory was accessible too. I shouldn¡¯t get too comfortable though. I could run into the person who¡¯s been here earlier. I¡¯m not sure if the person knows about my existence yet, I should keep vigilant while moving around the castle from now on. Just because the person uses Moon magic, doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯ll be friendly to a vampire. ¡°Wait¡­ magic?¡± with a loud slap I hit my palm on my forehead as thoughts of self-contempt rush my head. How could I forget? How did it never come to my mind before? I¡¯m able to use magic! Why didn¡¯t I even think about it? How stupid can I be!? I feel like an idiot now. Yes, I¡¯m an idiot. I¡¯m not sure if I would¡¯ve had an easier time over the past day and two nights, but it would¡¯ve probably helped with hunting in the woods. Vampires are supposed to be, like, super strong at magic. Especially us, the pure vampires. There are not many races in the world that can rival the magic potential of a pure vampire. Ancient dragons and old elves are probably the only ones who are stronger from the ones that have lived on this continent. We are practically Moon element mana and mass of mindless spectres that have condensed so densely overtime, that they gain a physical form. I did gain the knowledge from Moon Goddess Lunea about my natural abilities upon birth, but somehow magic still completely slipped my mind soon after. Maybe it¡¯s just all the new information that overwhelmed me. Now I¡¯m super curious about trying all magic. For now I can probably only use the magic that is natural to vampires though: shadow magic, including the vampires¡¯ unique transformation. It should be pretty easy for me to learn other forms of magic too, once I go through some books here and gain some actual experience outside. But for now, I should probably stick to practicing natural magic, for the sake of this library¡¯s safety, if for nothing else. Never mind that! More importantly¡­ I close my eyes and imagine the darkest form of darkness I can, which is fairly easy for me; I spent a good time in such a space. I imagine it spreading from the core of my body to the floor surrounding me. I feel like something¡¯s flowing down my legs and open my eyes. Semi-transparent, barely visible dark substance similar to the veil at the door is unevenly spreading three meters around me. I crouch to touch it. It¡¯s a bit weird; it acts a bit like gas, but feels like very thin liquid or soft cloth. I concentrate on moving it around, and the ¡®shadow¡¯ spreads to the direction in a way I imagine. I can even lift it off the floor, make it create shapes and have it climb the walls and bookshelves. The range seems to reach as far as this room, so I¡¯m not sure what my range limit is. It¡¯s at least 30 or 40 meters in all directions, as I¡¯m about in the middle of the library. ¡°Wow, this is really easy! As expected of a natural ability,¡± I imagine pulling in the shadows and they recede back into my body. What an odd feeling, is this how a towel would feel like when dumped into a puddle? I don¡¯t feel wet, though. How confusing. I¡¯m pretty sure shadow magic is supposed to block the sense of vision. Does that mean my eyes can see even through that? After all, I can see through my own magic and the wall of shadow at the doors. There¡¯s always been a tiny bit of light coming in from somewhere in places I¡¯ve been in before, no matter how small it is. Or maybe it¡¯s the vampires¡¯ supposed immunity to Moon element magic in general. Hard to say, before I learn more about the subject. Shadow magic should also be able to block any sounds and smells. I need to practice how that works tonight, it should be useful in hiding my footsteps while hunting. ¡®But wait, shadows are not supposed to work like that,¡¯ is what foreign scholars are known to claim sometimes. The name of the magic has come from a common misconception, caused by how the magic looks dark and shadow-like. How it works is closer to how illusion magic can cause hallucinations. Okay, next up the transformation. I inspect my body for a bit and close my eyes again. I try to feel every part of my body and form a mental image of myself. Then I imagine the said image dispersing into the surroundings. A weird¡­lack of feeling, like I was still floating in the darkness before I saw my first of the 56 memories, washes over me as I lose all sense of touch. I open my eyes again and see that I¡¯m in middle of a dark mist. I try moving around and my point of view moves within the room as I imagine, followed by the mist. Wow, this is so cool! I can move in all directions, even high up close to the ceiling, but can¡¯t seem to be able to touch objects: the ¡®mist¡¯, or my ¡®body¡¯, just moves through or around objects. I get back close to the floor level and imagine my physical body again. The fog concentrates fast and to my confusion, instead of standing normally, I suddenly fall straight down to my face without time to brace myself. ¡°Huh? Why?¡± A weird tingling sensation spreads downwards from my ankles, followed by a sharp pain soon after. Somehow I manage to swallow the cry from the unexpected pain. A quick, teary glance at my feet reveals that they are missing, cut from the ankles. Blood is pouring out, but the feet are rapidly growing back. My eyes grow wide in shock, but after less than four seconds, before I even have any time to panic, the feet are in as good shape as ever with no sign of the pain I had been feeling for a moment. Sighing deeply and rubbing my feet to make sure they are really okay, I come to the conclusion that I must¡¯ve materialized myself too close to the floor and my feet ended up inside it. There¡¯s a puddle of blood on the spot where I was supposed to be standing when I materialized. My mist can''t pass through solid objects but my body''s dimensions will always be the same when I materialize. That¡¯s super dangerous! It¡¯s fun and useful, but oh my Lunea is it dangerous! I don¡¯t want to guess what happens if I materialize when halves of my mist body are on different sides of a heavily built desk. A bit traumatized by the incident, I decide to leave further experiments to a later time. Speaking of later time, I wonder how long I¡¯ve spent here. A peek into the corridor rewards me with a headache and blotches in my eyes after having been in dark for so long. Without delay I slam the doors shut and walk over to the small round table to see what kinds of books the previous visitor has been reading. They are mostly books about death magic and theory behind magic rituals and spells performed by several casters. Rising my eyebrows in surprise, I¡¯m again reminded of the scene north of the city. The Wave of Death, why did it fail? I had completely forgotten about it when I realized I could use magic. It is probably related to these books. Or it¡¯s perhaps better to say the result is most likely an inherent flaw in magic cast by multiple people. Let¡¯s just read what these books say first, maybe I¡¯ve missed something. I¡¯m grateful to my memories for giving me the knowledge to read the common continental language.
Closing the fifth book, I rub my temples and look at the doors that have remained shut since I came here. I need a break. I walk outside, holding my hand in front of my eyes just in case. It¡¯s quite bright, but not painfully so. It¡¯s early evening, probably looks so bright because I¡¯ve been in the dark for so long. I can probably go hunting in an hour or two. Well, that¡¯s convenient. I can mull over my thoughts about what I already knew and what I learned from the books. I dust off a sofa on the right side of the library while covering my nose (I¡¯ve learnt to hate dusting) and bring one of the magic theory books plus a couple of history books and leave the latter two on the floor. I slump on the sofa and riffle through the book while stopping at the most crucial parts. I think I¡¯ve confirmed my theory. It¡¯s pretty clear why this all happened. It all comes down to the third law of magic. The first two laws of magic are simple. The caster just needs the elemental energy the countless elemental spirits are radiating into their surroundings. Then they need to sense and absorb the spirit energy into their magic cores, and convert the elemental spirit energy into elemental mana. Most beings are capable of doing that at least to some extent. Those who can¡¯t are unable to use magic at all. I flip a few pages ahead on the book. The third law is the hardest one: the filtering. The magic user can¡¯t absorb just one specific element of spirit energy into their magic core. It comes in from all spirits equally. The key is to mentally filter the different elements inside the magic core. Only the element used in the spell must be left, the others must be expelled. Then the caster needs to imagine the effect of the magic. It¡¯s quite mentally straining for most people and requires strong imagination and understanding of the element, which is why only a portion of the populace is able to become proper mages, at least among most races. If the filtering fails and mana of multiple elements is mixed into the spell, it backfires on the user with high risk of mental or physical damage and/or corruption. For trained mages filtering mana is not difficult. It just requires concentration. Technically, only the caster¡¯s imagination and the amount of mana their magic core can hold are the limits for what kind of magic can be used. Incantations are often used to help in forming the mental image of the spell. It¡¯s pretty simple when you think about it objectively. I close the book with a slap, throw it on a desk and sigh. However, magic becomes exponentially more difficult as multiple casters are added into the equation. Their mental image of the spell needs to be identical. It¡¯s not hard to realize why things can go wrong when multiple people are added in. Fifty-six people. That¡¯s how many sorcerers were casting the same spell. Did they all have an identical image of the effects of the large area death magic? A spell, which had probably never been used in the history of the country or the continent before, which would kill only those who the caster considers enemies, while protecting those they wanted to protect. I doubt it. My face crumples as I think about it. They all were strong sorcerers. They and the king were not stupid. They had the same knowledge as I do. They should¡¯ve seen the risks of a large spell which had to be cast by so many people. Why would they gamble on something like that? Well, I know why they did, but I still can¡¯t accept it. I don¡¯t even know why I¡¯m feeling this way. Humans are food for me. Why should I care? I haven¡¯t seen any humans, but when I try to imagine one, I don¡¯t feel a shred of doubt about feeding on it. So why do I feel so annoyed when I think about what has happened here? Is it the memories? But they aren''t even mine, even though I keep saying ''my memories''! I can¡¯t think of an answer and it¡¯s really gnawing at me. Quickly sitting up, I grab one of the books from the floor and throw it in frustration at the doors some distance away. It impacts the door with a bang and the book breaks apart into a flurry of pages. ¡°Haa¡­ what¡¯s wrong with me?¡± Shaking my head I grab the other history book from the floor, titled The Era of Wars and Unions (1600 ¨C 6200 ACS). Year 6200 huh, so I guess that¡¯s over 400 years ago, if I remember the year from the memories even remotely correct. Never hurts to learn more history. Guess I¡¯ll spend a moment with this to distract my thoughts before heading outside. Chapter 6 - Encounters Before leaving the library I clean up the mess I made by throwing the book. It¡¯d be embarrassing to leave something like this behind, wouldn¡¯t it? What if the person who¡¯s been taking care of this place comes back while I¡¯m away? Just as I¡¯m leaving the room, I glance back once more and my sight lands on the not so inconspicuous puddle of blood I had left on the floor. I stare at the puddle in silence for a moment. ¡°Aahhh, nooo¡­¡± I moan in frustration. I didn¡¯t remember this mess. The blood has already partially dried up. There¡¯s no way to clean this until I find some water or learn to use Water magic. Why did I even bother spending the time gathering up the pages? Now it¡¯s literally a case of ¡®no use crying over spilled blood¡¯. I guess learning Water magic takes priority over other elements then. It should be useful for other things as well, like keeping my clothes and myself clean. Just because I don¡¯t sweat doesn¡¯t mean I can forgo such things. Hmm, the blood puddle is still mostly damp. Since I can¡¯t clean it up anyway, should I leave a little message or prank..? Never mind, I can¡¯t think of any witty message that could get me more information or scare the person. I dip my finger in the blood and write a short message: ¡®Sorry for the mess¡¯. ¡­ I didn¡¯t lose track of time so badly this time, so I should have a good amount of time to hunt and wander tonight. Hopefully I can find something larger to eat. Last night I only hunted on the southern side of the woods. The woods are split in half by the road so tonight my plan is to map the northern side, or what¡¯s left of it. I¡¯m not sure if the northern side has been damaged by the shockwave from Wave of Death. I back track my route from last night back to the hill, including the gate lifting experience. Instead of my rusty old spear I now have my shiny new old but sturdy staff, an arm¡¯s length shorter than the spear, in addition to my daggers. As I¡¯m running up the slope and nearing the top of the hill, I look at the still hard to believe sight to my right. The twin moons are still climbing and are reflecting from the sea¡¯s surface in a bluish hue, the dark grey Bless being heavily overshined by the blue Lunea. Without context it would probably be a beautiful scene, but to me it just gives the creeps. At the edge of the woods I try my shadow magic again. In bright moonlight it¡¯s much easier to notice how it blocks light. It was barely noticeable inside the library where there were no obvious light sources. Maybe there were tiny inconspicuous gaps in the ceiling. I can still see through the shadow no matter how thickly I mold it, but the scene behind it looks dark and colorless. I wrap the shadow around myself and the sounds and smells of the nature abate noticeably, but not to a degree that I can¡¯t hear the wind or smell the forest. The shadow isn¡¯t solid enough to allow me to step on it, but if I just cover my foot in it so that there are no gaps, it should effectively block the sound of my footsteps, I hope. My range easily covers a large enough area that I won¡¯t have to worry about giving away my location from the rustling I cause by moving in the thick vegetation. I don¡¯t want to test out my maximum limits at the moment, as I don¡¯t know enough about how this whole ¡®being made of mana¡¯ thing works or how fast I consume my ¡®reserves¡¯, if I even have any. But the range can easily stretch out some hundreds of meters from what I can see with a little bit of testing. This should be incredibly useful while hunting, assuming it actually works as it should against other beings. It will be useless if it works as weakly against my prey as it works against me. Unless¡­ I turn into my mist form. Yes! I can still smell and hear things. How does that even work? Same way as how I can see I guess? Neat! I should be able to go through the woods silently without alarming any animals in my mist form. Just, gotta be really careful when materializing. I don¡¯t want to end up splattered inside a tree. That¡¯d probably be painful. A neat extra feature I realized just now is that the clothes I¡¯m wearing and things I¡¯m touching also turn into mist. It would be a bit embarrassing and impractical if my clothes and weapons dropped off whenever I try to mistify. Making sure I materialize high enough, I drop a couple of meters down before landing. Safe! I bow around me to an invisible audience. The transformation will be plan B, for now I¡¯ll stick to plan A and try how well my shadow magic works while hunting. I cover some distance around my surroundings in a dome of shadow magic and rush into the woods.
After some hours of zigzagging and hunting a few small meals, I end up at the northern end of the woods. The woods have obviously been damaged here, since the trees are younger and the terrain is somewhat¡­ unnaturally formed, as if someone had taken a huge shovel and dug out some of the hill away. It¡¯s just past midnight so I still have plenty of time and while I¡¯m not hungry, I don¡¯t feel exactly satisfied either. Shadow magic has proven itself to be incredibly useful. I can easily catch animals by surprise, though I did adjust the size of my shadow dome to be smaller, a few meters in all directions around me. Animals can¡¯t seem to hear or smell me, but if they see me approaching they panic and run away, which makes me quite curious about how it looks from their perspective. Is it just a huge ominous black orb approaching? Yeah, that¡¯d be pretty spooky. I did get some practice in with my oversized club, I mean staff. I should probably leave it somewhere and keep practicing with my daggers instead. Have you ever heard of a mage who bashes their enemies¡¯ heads in with their staff instead of using magic? Yeah, I¡¯m painfully aware of how weird it is. Since I have plenty of time, I head further west with the plan of circling the entire woods to see where my hunting grounds¡¯ borders end, before heading back to the city. After reaching the western end of the woods and following its edge towards south for a while, I come to a halt as I smell blood. The faint smell is coming from somewhere east, maybe around the road. As I get closer carefully, the smell becomes exponentially stronger. Previously I would have assumed for some kind of massacre to have happened, but I¡¯ve learnt that my sense of smell is a bit too sensitive when it comes to blood so I shouldn¡¯t rush into conclusions. After moving as fast as I dare in the woods for about 10 minutes, the surroundings are getting slightly brighter as I get closer to the source of blood and I can hear the distant cracking of fire ahead and an increasingly loud but frequent snorting, vibrating sound. I slow down to a walk and reduce my shadow to cover just the area around me in an effort to not give myself away. I can see the road some distance to the right from between the trees. It seems someone has made a camp on a clearing right next to it. There are some bushes conveniently near the edge of the clearing, so I crouch and get behind the bushes to get a better look. It¡¯s a semicircular clearing, about 100 meters in diameter, which is right next to the main road. The first thing my eyes land on is the large camp fire, its flames easily reaching above my height. The next thing I notice is not whatever gives off the smell of blood as I was expecting, simply because there¡¯s something much more eye-catching taking up the space around the clearing. There are three gigantic creatures, two of them apparently sleeping and one presumably on night watch. It seems they¡¯ve felled some trees for seats around the fire. The loud sound I¡¯ve been hearing, which I now assume to be snoring, is coming from the two sleeping creatures. They are humanoids, but I don¡¯t remember seeing anything this large in my memories and this time my knowledge doesn¡¯t seem to be reliable. Are they ogres? Or maybe trolls? Probably either of the two, but I don¡¯t know the difference. They are big at about four meters tall and thick all around, not just with fat but also bulging muscles. I should¡¯ve read a humanoid species encyclopedia or something in the library. They shouldn¡¯t be giants at least. If the history book I read is correct, giants shouldn¡¯t exist on the continent anymore. Let¡¯s just call them ogres for now.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. For clothes they only have some huge animal pelts tied together around their waists. They have huge clubs over two meters long and almost as thick as the trees next to each one of them. ¡°Hah, isn¡¯t this a bit too big of a difficulty jump from foxes? I don¡¯t think the Adventurers¡¯ Guild would ask a newbie to go kill these after reporting their first hunting kills!¡± The smell of blood seems to be coming from that pile of bones next to the fire and from their clubs. The bones only have hints of meat and blood left on them and I can¡¯t recognize what the remains belong to, but they¡¯ve clearly had a huge feast on many animals. The ogre on guard duty is staring at the fire with its side towards me and doesn¡¯t seem to have noticed me by any means. My shadow magic is still doing its job. I certainly can smell them now that I¡¯m this close. Gross. Fortunately the smell of blood overwhelms it pretty well. Now, what to do? I don¡¯t believe they¡¯d be friendly and tell me what year it is or have a chat about the weather if I just go ahead and greet them. They look too dumb for that anyway. I shouldn¡¯t underestimate them though, because at least they have the intelligence to stick together and keep a guard during the night. This would be a huge feast for me, a single one of these three could probably feed me better than all the animals I¡¯ve sucked dry combined, ever since I was born. They look pretty thick skinned but that shouldn¡¯t pose a problem. I can¡¯t pass up this kind of opportunity. It will also be my first proper fight. I lay down my staff and grab one of my daggers. I don¡¯t have precise enough control over my magic to cover all three of them separately with shadow, but if I can take care of the one that¡¯s awake without alerting the other two, this should be easy. There¡¯s quite some distance between each of them, which should work to my advantage. If I cover the guard with my shadow, it can¡¯t alert the other two. ¡°I can do this. I¡¯m the strongest at night. They don¡¯t stand a chance,¡± I try to encourage myself with a whisper, but their size is intimidating no matter how I put it. I stretch out my shadow as fast as possible towards the ogre, wait until it has almost reached the target and throw the dagger at it, dashing out from my bush. The ogre probably saw movement from the corner of its eye and starts turning and standing up with a grunt, but is too late as it¡¯s covered by the shadow. I aimed the dagger at its neck hoping I could cut its throat, but thanks to my shitty throwing skills and the ogre¡¯s movement, the dagger buries itself deep into its shoulder instead and it roars in pain. Clicking my tongue I jump towards the howling ogre¡¯s head. I thrust my left hand forward piercing its skull with the claws and cut its throat using my right hand. Dying immediately, the ogre¡¯s heavy body falls right next to the trunk it had been using as a seat, hitting it and sending it rolling away with a loud sound. ¡°Shit!¡± There goes the sneaky plan. I didn¡¯t account for that so the shadow didn¡¯t reach far enough. My eyes dart towards the sleeping ogres, and of course they are stirring awake from the noise and about to sit up. The other one is looking my way in confusion. They are way too light sleepers! Pulling in the shadow, I throw my other dagger aiming for the ogre¡¯s head and sprint after it. It¡¯s surprisingly agile for its size and reflexively blocks the object flying at it with its arm. The dagger pierces through down to the quillon. ¡°Uhru! Enemy! Kill Arga!¡± it shouts while standing up and looking around for its weapon. Finding the club, it starts reaching for it. Too late! Now having come close enough, I jump and thrust my claws deep into its throat as its eyes are focused on the weapon. The ogre gurgles and reaches for me, trying to throw me off with its free hand in panic, but I slice the hand in half before kicking off from its chest. It drops the club, stumbles back and drops on its bum, trying to desperately hold its throat with the still intact hand in vain while blood pours from its mouth and sliced hand. ¡°Hurt Moga!¡° an angry roar comes from behind me and a shadow looms over me. I barely have time to turn my head to briefly see a massive something, before it hits my side with a nasty cracking sound. ¡°Kuh..!¡± I¡¯m sent flying into the woods and am stopped by a tree after a few seconds and I fall to the ground. I feel a mild throbbing from where I was hit. Looking down, my bloody right arm is twisted in a very unnatural way and there¡¯s a nasty looking dent around my ribs. I spit some of the nearly tasteless blood out of my mouth. ¡°You kill Arga! Uhru kill you!¡± a shout and sound of stomping comes from the direction I flew from. Standing up, I raise my face to look at the third ogre, who is now charging at me with its bloody club raised high. I bite my lip, trying to ignore the brief pain from the regeneration and cover the charging ogre in shadow before it has time to reach me and start running around it. ¡°What!? What you do!?¡± the ogre shouts, panic in its voice. Confused by the sudden darkness and lack of sound, the ogre veers into a tree and starts looking around, swinging its club wildly. I circle behind it and jump on its back. Before it has any time to react, I stab my claws in the back of its head and sink my fangs in its nape. The blood is so amazing and rich it almost makes me dizzy. Ahh, what a taste! This is too good! Short and weird disconnected memories flash through my mind as I keep digging deeper with my fangs and reveling in the euphoria. After a moment I also feel like I instinctively know just slightly better how to use large blunt weapons more effectively. These must be the memories and experiences gained from more intelligent beings. I wonder how the feeling will be with something like a human. Ahhh~, can¡¯t wait. In less than a minute the corpse runs dry and I remove my lips from the neck with a smack. Sighing contentedly and rubbing my belly, I look around and realize I didn¡¯t even make sure the ogre was falling the right way before biting in. It would¡¯ve been an annoying interruption if it didn¡¯t fall on its face. I let my bloodlust get the better of me again, how embarrassing... The woods are now quiet, except for the cracking of the large fire. Even the birds seem to have quieted down or escaped from the brief sounds of the battle. ¡®Brief¡¯ is indeed the proper word, the fight itself was over probably in less than a minute from start to finish. I messed up though. In the end it was all good, but I still screwed up and got hit. I can blame it on lack of forethought and experience I guess. I should¡¯ve probably attacked from behind the guard so it wouldn¡¯t have had any time to prepare. Instead, I rushed in from the side. And I was too focused on the second ogre who was reaching for a weapon and didn¡¯t keep an eye on the third. I¡¯ll need to be more careful in the future. Couldn¡¯t I have just covered the entire clearing in my ¡®shadow dome¡¯? Well, I¡¯m not really sure how senses work inside my shadow. I didn¡¯t want to risk it, not until I hear it from someone who knows more or is not nearly immune to it like me. From this fight I noticed that when I was covered within the same shadow as the first ogre, I could hear its voice clearly without it getting muffled down like the sounds coming from the outside. I could¡¯ve turned into mist before getting hit, but that thought didn¡¯t even come close to my mind in the heat of the battle. I wouldn¡¯t have had time to react anyway, I didn¡¯t expect it. We ended up over 50 meters into the woods with the third ogre. That was a nasty hit. I start walking back into the clearing and realize I¡¯m missing my breastplate. Ahh damn, it must¡¯ve broken from the hit, how useless. Coming back to the clearing, I notice the second ogre is still barely alive. The weak heaving of its chest and movement of its half closed eyes give away that it¡¯s alive and sees me. It¡¯s lying on its back in a pool of blood, weakly holding its wound but clearly almost dead from severe blood loss. It looks like they don¡¯t have high speed regeneration, so they are ogres after all, huh? Lucky~, if I remember correct, trolls have a pretty good regeneration speed. I feel more sated than ever, but I still feel like I could fit in a dessert so I walk over to it and remove the hand from its collar. ¡°Thanks for the meal~?¡± I happily bite in. It has no strength left to resist or react. It has lost a huge amount of blood, but there¡¯s still plenty left. I think I might¡¯ve had to stop half way if it still had all of its blood. It¡¯s bad manners to waste food, but I think I¡¯ll have to pass up on the last one. I don¡¯t have any means to store and carry their bodies or blood anyway. It doesn¡¯t take long at all to finish off the dessert. I didn¡¯t seem to get as much experience or memories from this one. Maybe it¡¯s because there was less blood? Ahh, but damn, I¡¯m so full now. I already ate a decent amount before finding this trio, just how many liters of blood was that? I can¡¯t help but giggle, it just feels so blissful to be this satisfied. Ah right, the daggers! They are still stuck where I left them. I grab the one stuck on this one¡¯s arm and walk over to the first corpse and draw the second dagger out from the shoulder. I wipe both daggers into the pelts, sheathe them and go grab my staff from behind the bush. Well, I¡¯m full now and there¡¯s still at least three hours before morning. I can¡¯t do anything to the fire really, so I guess I¡¯ll just leave things here as they are. With a wide grin on my face I start leisurely walking down the road back to Estmoor. ¡­ The woods have indeed grown quite a bit and it takes me almost an hour to reach the top of the hill with my slow pace. I still have some time so I head for the crater. I walk along the edge of the crater for a good while hoping to find some place where the surface of the water would be close, but everywhere seems to be just steep cliffs with at least a 100-meter drop to the sea. Maybe I¡¯ll look further east or northwest on another night, because I can¡¯t practice Water magic like this. I need to properly learn how the element feels before I can even hope to practice it. I guess I¡¯ll have to wait and collect some rain water in some container or find a well later. I go back inside the city walls and head towards the castle, casually looking around for any wells to check later and put down their locations into the rough map inside my head. This time I don¡¯t bother with the portcullis and just jump over the 12-meter castle walls, because I felt like I could do it now. No problems! There¡¯s about an hour before sunrise so I stroll around the courtyard for a while, looking for anything interesting. I see no signs of anything hinting at the existence of the person who has been taking care of the library. There¡¯s nothing but undead and bones. Before going inside the castle and into the library for the day, I grab two nearby skeleton soldiers by their shoulder bones, or whatever they are called, and drag them with me to play with during the day. I push the library doors open and push the skeletons ahead of me through the shadow wall. Peering from behind my bone shields, I scan the library but there¡¯s nothing different from when I left. My blood puddle has completely dried up too. ¡°Haa, I¡¯ve had enough excitement for one night so this is nice. Don¡¯t you think so too, you two? I¡¯ll play with you a bit later. I¡¯ll just relax a bit on my sofa first... Ahh, still feeling so full¡­ I feel like I could even sleep as I¡¯m now.¡± I leave the skeletons standing next to the doors and walk over to the sofa and let myself fall on it sloppily and close my eyes for a bit. Soon I hear the two skeletons walking around, the sound is getting closer. Hm? Are they coming here? Shouldn¡¯t they just stand around if there¡¯s no sound or weapons to grab? I open my eyes. They are walking closer and look pretty determined. With their firm grip on the swords, the feeling they give off is almost hostile. A bit creeped out by their unexpected behavior, I sit up. ¡°What¡¯s up with you two?¡± ¡°Who said that sofa is yours?¡± a raspy voice comes from next to my ear as something grabs my shoulder. Chapter 7 - Bottled up feelings ¡°Hiyaaaaaa!!¡± I wince and quickly drop to the floor and kick myself away from the sofa like a spring. I didn¡¯t think I could let out such a loud and high pitched scream. But they say you learn new things every day, I guess. By the seven gods, if I had a beating heart it¡¯d have stopped! After sliding a good distance away from the sofa I turn around to see who the voice belongs to with my daggers drawn. It¡¯s a skeleton. Another skeleton. With the two I had brought with me watching me, standing still somewhere to the left between us. But this one has brightly flaming red orbs in its eye sockets and it¡¯s wearing a thick but worn cape without any armor. It¡¯s also holding a staff even more impressive than mine. After a moment of us staring at each other with tense atmosphere in silence, it bursts out laughing. I just stare dumbly at the cackling undead, who is now grabbing the back of the sofa to support itself. Just¡­ what? ¡°What is it!? What!? What¡¯s so funny?¡± I shout in frustration, feeling like I¡¯m being made fun of. ¡°¡­ahahahah! Sorry, sorry. Hah..! Ahem! My apologies, your reaction was just too amusing, I could not help it.¡± It points its arm towards the ceiling and the magic lamps on a chandelier light up. With more lighting, it¡¯s now easier to see the colors. My eyes land on backside of the embroidery on the blue cape, showing partly through his ribs. ¡°What ar-, no, who are you? A lich..?¡± ¡°Good conclusion, I suppose you could call me as such.¡± ¡°What do you want? You set up that shadow magic, right?¡± I point at the doors. ¡±Why?¡± I don¡¯t think he¡¯s hostile since he didn¡¯t straight up attack me. And where have I seen that crest before? It¡¯s bothering me, it¡¯s so familiar. Silver shield¡­ black staff¡­ blue background, the color of Cresta. ¡°Curious, aren¡¯t you? Indeed, it is my magic. As for why, I ¨C¡° ¡°No, wait a minute. That cape¡­ and crest¡­ the royal family! Are you¡­ King Jonathan?¡± Its eyes flash brightly. Bingo? ¡°Oho..? Now that is something I haven¡¯t heard in a long time. Not to mention meeting someone who recognizes this crest,¡± it, no, he, starts walking to the left while stroking his bony jaw. ¡°And where has a young lady such as yourself heard that name from and how do you know of this long forgotten crest?¡± he turns to look at me again after stopping to pick up a book and point at its cover. It has the same crest: a black staff standing in front of a silver shield. ¡°So you are the king?¡± ¡°I do not believe I was being too vague. It is indeed true I once held the title of King of Cresta, Jonathan the First. But I am a king no more. I have no kingdom to rule or citizens to protect. However, it is bad manners to answer a question with another question, miss vampire.¡± Startled, I touch my ears only to confirm their tips are still covered by my hair. ¡°How do you ¨C ¡° *Ahem* ¡°¡­sorry,¡± I mumble and finally stand up, slightly embarrassed. It seems he means no harm for now, so I sheathe my daggers and dust myself, while trying to gather myself together. The attempt falls short as I notice and remember my sorry state of clothing. I¡¯m only wearing short thigh leather armor and a somewhat bloodied makeshift chestwrap. I lost the breastplate. I stiffen and my embarrassment grows to new heights. ¡°Ah, this, um, I¡¯m sor¨C¡° I try to mumble an apology while probably blushing heavily and get interrupted as the king bursts out laughing again. Someone, please make me disappear. ¡°I do not mind, there must be¡­ circumstances, involved. I did not miss the pool of blood and the message you had left. The sight is in fact quite pleasing to the eye, after seeing rotting corpses and skeletons for most of the time for so long.¡± Just stop it already! My face must be as red as my hair by now. ¡°It is amusing to see an undead show such vibrant emotions. You really do resemble humans, how nostalgic. You vampires really are something else,¡± the king chuckles and clears his non-existing throat again. ¡°Anyway! My questions, if you would.¡± How rude! Is he just playing with me!? But the mention of vampires and the king¡¯s now serious tone does cool my head down somewhat. How does he know my race? ¡±Since you somehow seem to know I¡¯m a vampire, it makes explaining easy. You should know how pure vampires are born, correct?¡± I explain to him when and where I woke up and how I have some memories and knowledge from around the time when Wave of Death was cast. ¡°Hmm, interesting¡­¡± the king¡¯s eyes simmer down as starts walking back to the sofa, seemingly thinking about something. ¡°Such a young vampire with so vast knowledge. Your power must be quite immense as well. This place has the largest concentration of Moon mana on the entire continent. You must be the reason why the amount of mana has decreased in the region so much in the past weeks and months.¡± ¡°Weeks and even months!? What do you mean, I said it was just three days ago?¡± ¡°The creation of a pure vampire is a long process. Even if the undead, especially your kind, are blessed by the Moon Goddess, it does not happen in the blink of an eye. Over the past months the amount of corrupted creatures has decreased, undead do not rise as often and normal monsters are more common. Magisus has become more aggressive as well,¡± the king talks in a calm tone and stops in front of the sofa, looking at the floor somewhere between us with dim eyes. After a short silence the flames brighten up and he looks up at me, continuing in a slightly uneven voice: ¡°Miss, you said that you have memories from the sorcerers who were at the Tower. Did you see their last moments? If you did, you are the only surviving witness to what happened at the epicenter during the Day of Moon Drop.¡± ¡°Day of¡­ Moon Drop? You mean the Wave of Death? Yes, it¡¯s the last memory I saw.¡± The king nods after hearing my confirmation and thinks about something for a moment, before continuing: ¡°Did you see my¡­ did you see Princess Cristina? Do you also have memories from her? If possible¡­ I would like to know how her final moments were, at the very least.¡± ¡°Yes and yes. I couldn¡¯t see the events all the way until the end, but I believe everyone on the scene died very quickly after the spell was cast, and seemingly without pain.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± the king sighs. ¡°I apologize again for startling you earlier. You are obviously not a dog of the Magisus kingdom or of anyone else. Let¡¯s have a seat, no point in being so serious here, isn¡¯t that so?¡± the king switches to a more casual tone, almost startling me with the sudden change. He snaps his bony fingers at the two skeletons, which I had completely forgotten about, and they carry one of the desks in front of the sofa along with a chair to the opposite side. The king sits down on the sofa and gestures for me to sit down on the chair. The two skeletons walk behind the sofa and stand on his both sides, like guards. So he can control lesser undead. Well, no surprises there I guess, he¡¯s a lich. And a king. Or an ex-king. Technically the skeletons used to be his subjects in the past too. I wonder if that has anything to do with his control. Hopefully he can¡¯t do that with me. He shouldn¡¯t be able to. That would be too bad even for a joke. Damn, this is so confusing and unreal. Am I actually talking with that king? And he wants to casually have a chat with a mysterious half-naked girl? I guess he doesn¡¯t see me as a threat. Well I¡¯m not, so he¡¯s not wrong. I mean sure, I wasn¡¯t certain if I should believe him earlier but now, with that sudden attitude change, he actually reminds me of the king I know much more. I let myself relax a little. While still being somewhat tense, I walk over to the desk and sit down. ¡°I would prefer to offer a less¡­ dark and shabby place to a lady guest, but I believe a vampire such as you would prefer to stay here during the day. As a host I am ashamed to admit I can¡¯t offer you a meal right now, either,¡± the king jests in a tone which contrasts the deep and raspy voice. His voice is completely unrecognizable from how it was during the time he was alive.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I appreciate your concern. And don¡¯t worry, I had a satisfying feast some hours ago,¡± I chuckle. The king nods, leans on the desk with his elbows and points towards the doors. ¡°That shadow wall acts as a warning system. I always keep it connected to myself by a thin line of shadow when I leave, so I can detect when someone touches or goes through it. Since you didn¡¯t know about it, I assume you have not had much practice yet. No surprise, seeing that you only rose such a short time ago. It is high tier shadow magic, but you vampires have natural talent for it. With my help you can learn it in no time. I didn¡¯t know who had barged in here, so I hid at first. I have had no visitors ever since I woke up, looking like this, 20 years ago. I am glad it was someone like you. I want to thank you. I have had no way of finding out what happened exactly and whether my daughter suffered during her death.¡± ¡°I only know what the people saw and heard, so I can only tell you so much. Nobody at the Tower seemed to suffer pain, at the very least.¡± ¡°I am full of regrets, possibly for all eternity because of this form, but my deepest regret all these years has been whether my daughter resented me for what I made her do.¡± I could feel something crack inside my mind. Something I¡¯ve been trying to hold back. I frown and look down at the smooth surface of the desk. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you about her feelings of resentment, since I had no connection to her personal feelings,¡± I say. ¡°¡­but if it was me, I would probably resent you,¡± I mumble, before flinching as I realize I had let my last thoughts leak through. ¡°Hoo? Is that so?¡± the king¡¯s tone changes to and I look up. The fires in the king¡¯s eyes flicker. ¡°You would resent me? It appears you know more than I expected. From which of the sorcerers did you receive memories and knowledge from?¡± Frowning deeper, I look to the side dodging the king¡¯s gaze. Ahh, this is annoying. What should I say here? I was trying to avoid telling everything voluntarily, since my knowledge is quite sensitive. But do I have anything to gain from lying? He¡¯s not hostile, but I can¡¯t call him friendly either, not yet. I¡¯m not sure how he would react to finding out that someone who is technically an outsider knows their kingdom¡¯s most tightly kept secret. The topic is something I don¡¯t want to think about at all to begin with. It disgusts me. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Ah, no, I was just thinking,¡± I take a quick glance at his eyes and continue: ¡°I got memories and knowledge from all of them. All 56 of them.¡± ¡°All of them?¡± his eyes burn more intense than ever. ¡±How surprising¡­ but the circumstances of the spell and this region are quite unique. It is within the possibilities,¡° the fires in his eyes turn into tiny flickering orbs, as his fingers cross. ¡±Exactly, how much do you know about Cresta?¡± ¡®Ahh... I messed up, didn¡¯t I?¡¯ My inner self screams in frustration while I try to keep a straight face. I can feel the cracks holding me back get worse. There¡¯s no way around it, is there? Now that I can¡¯t just push the thought to the back of my mind, I¡¯m actually getting pretty ticked. Just because he seemed like a fun guy, doesn¡¯t mean I can accept just anything. I take a deep breath preparing myself and meet the lich¡¯s flaming eyes with figurative flames of my own. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s stop beating around the bush. I know enough. About why Cresta was such closed-off major power, about how you became such a major power, about why your people were so good at Moon magic and about why you were so desperate to keep the secret. Your entire family line is solely responsible for the destruction of the kingdom. Well? Do you think it was worth it? Look at what¡¯s left!¡± my anger just keeps fueling itself further the more I talk. ¡°How insolent, don¡¯t talk as if you know everything just because you know a little of the background story! You don¡¯t have any clue about what it takes to rule a country and protect its citizens. There was nothing else we could have done better after all those centuries,¡± the lich growls at me. ¡°There was nothing else you could¡¯ve done to protect your citizens, other than destroy the country and kill everyone? Don¡¯t make me laugh! Where¡¯s your kingdom and people now, ¡®king¡¯?¡± I jeer at him and stand up, sending the chair clattering to the floor. The two skeletons behind the lich start moving but he stops them with an arm movement and stands up. ¡°The kingdom would have been ruined regardless and the citizens would have suffered even worse fates, had we let Theocracy or Morgia get their hands on the truth! A quick death is better than being hunted and persecuted for an entire lifetime. At least we had a chance to succeed with the spell!¡± the lich roars and waves his arm at me defensively, only to suddenly calm down and sit down again a moment after. He continues in a quiet voice while staring at the floor: ¡°That is what I thought at the time anyway¡­¡± Any last restraints that had kept my feelings at bay shatter. ¡°Hah, I can see how you thought the spell was needed now! You and your family decided that you knew what¡¯s best for everyone, without caring about their own opinions. I can¡¯t say I particularly care about humans, but I¡¯m honestly disgusted by what your family and your ancestors kept doing for centuries. Just to keep your status as a feared major power. Maybe you mistook the fear for respect,¡° I scoff at him and mocking at him: ¡°What a happy little utopia you had here for half a millennium! Out of nowhere everyone became good at magic and foreign nations started respecting you, just at the small price of closing yourselves off from the outside world.¡± The lich looks up at me, clearly about to interrupt me, but I increase my volume to keep him quiet. ¡°I wonder what your respectful citizens would¡¯ve thought, if they knew that the magic and lifestyle they were so proud of was artificial, a result of mind control and memory manipulation magic! If they knew that their entire seemingly happy lives were controlled by the state without their knowledge since childhood. Just to protect that questionable Moon magic your ancestors gained from visitors from, I don¡¯t know, somewhere? Hah, ignorance sure is bliss! No wonder the secret never got out, since few were allowed to leave and foreigners were taught nothing. Even if the innocent people got captured, interrogated or tortured, they probably knew or remembered nothing, isn¡¯t that right, ¡®king¡¯?¡± Mentally exhausted by my outburst, I just stare down at the lich spitefully, who just quietly stares at me and after a moment just sighs (it¡¯s weird to hear a skeleton sigh) and shakes his head. ¡°You have thought about this quite much, haven¡¯t you? Did you get all your pent up feelings out now? Have you calmed down?¡± after waiting for a moment, he gestures for me to sit back down without a word. Having exhausted myself and let the flood of thoughts out, I¡¯ve indeed calmed down a bit. I pick up the chair and sit down with a scowl. Some of my irritation still remains. Before I have time to say anything, the king starts talking: ¡°Time cannot be turned back. I said I am riddled with regrets, possibly for all eternity because of this form. A fitting punishment, don¡¯t you think?¡± he chuckles sadly. ¡°The mistake that was started by my ancestors about 600 years ago was beyond my abilities to fix. This might sound like an excuse to you, but for all my life I was just doing what I had been entrusted with by my predecessors. If I had stopped, the kingdom would have collapsed. At the end of the war I made the decision I thought was the best choice at the time, and I was catastrophically wrong,¡± the king shakes his head and the flames in his eye sockets almost extinguish. ¡°The result was against my expectations, we were doing something mere mortals were never supposed attempt.¡± Now having calmed down from listening to the king¡¯s speech, something about what he said strikes me as odd. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®against your expectations¡¯? The spell failed because of multiple casters, right? Surely you knew about something so basic? You even had books lying around on the subject.¡± ¡°Wrong. It seems like you don¡¯t know everything about the circumstances after all. The sorcerers practiced together for a month. Their thoughts and intentions were aligned. We even made sure of it¡­ with mind control magic,¡± he hesitates mentioning the mind control but I try to ignore it. ¡°I can only reason that the failure was a result of divine intervention from the Goddess of Moon herself. We were doing something that the gods would not allow and were punished for it.¡± ¡°Are you joking? Aren¡¯t the gods completely indifferent about the mortal world? They have shown practically no interest in meddling with the happenings of our world even during great wars.¡± The king¡¯s eyes flutter as he snickers at my words: ¡°How amusing, that you of all people should say that. You are a being who directly gained knowledge from the Goddess herself.¡± I open my eyes wide at his statement. After a moment of silence I chuckle back weakly: ¡°¡­ Good point¡­ you got me there. I had assured myself about the reason, so a punishment from the Goddess didn¡¯t even cross my mind.¡± ¡°That spell borders the realm of gods. With the way we were planning to use it, I can only assume that the Goddess thought we were trying to reach too high,¡± the king shrugs matter-of-factly. ¡°The kingdom got destroyed by the same Moon magic that made it grow 600 years ago...¡± I mumble. If that really is true, the level of irony here is just too much, with me also being the eventual result of the Goddess¡¯s intervention. Neither of us says anything for a moment, creating an awkward silence between us. I start fidgeting as I try to come up with how to say what¡¯s in my mind. ¡°Umm¡­ look, I¡¯m sorry about my earlier outburst. I don¡¯t even know why all this bothers me this much and it¡¯s been driving me crazy. It¡¯s all in the past and I wasn¡¯t even involved in it. I¡¯m just an outsider with no connection to Cresta or its people, so why do I care so much?¡± ¡°That is where you are wrong, miss. You might not be a Crestan, but you have a deep connection to many people who were. While it might not be quite the same, you have been colored with their memories, not much unlike how a hatchling imprints to the first being they see. You are not a complete outsider.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t feel a speck of hesitation when I think about feeding on a human?¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t actually seen a living human before, have you? What are you picturing when you think of a human as food? I would assume you naturally imagine them with characteristics, clothes or armors of foreigners?¡± Ah..! He¡¯s right. I never paid attention to it, but they always wear the colors of the three enemy nations from the war. The king seems to notice my surprise. He nods and leans back on the sofa. ¡°I am so glad there is still someone who cares so deeply for Crestans. Your anger from earlier is justified and I deserve it. While your circumstances are unusual, I can think of you as trustworthy. I am certain you don¡¯t want to stay here for too long. There is not much to see in this gloomy city, so I will not hold you back. Just know that I will always welcome you back.¡± ¡°Thanks. Yeah, I¡¯ll probably leave soon,¡± I manage to mumble back while feeling oddly giddy. ¡°Certainly you must have plenty of questions, I will answer them the best I can. I would like to ask a bit more about your memories as well,¡° I frown after hearing this and he hurriedly adds: ¡°It¡¯s nothing bad, I swear! I am just curious about what you saw, especially on the Day of Moon Drop,¡± after a short pause he continues. ¡°I know it might sound unreasonable, but if you can find it in yourself to fulfill this wish of mine, I have one request.¡± I look at him curiously. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°While the kingdom is in ruins, you might still be able to salvage what little there is left of Crestan heritage. I have not been able to leave far, as I want to keep the region from getting occupied, but I have managed to confirm that not everyone died during the Day of Moon Drop. I believe there might still be Crestans out there in the world. If you meet any of them during your journeys, could you please protect them or at least make sure they are okay? While I understand that they might resent their homeland after what happened, I would even gladly take care of them here, if they are willing.¡± I smile at him. ¡°Sure, I can do that much if the opportunity comes.¡± Though I won''t send them anywhere near you. My smirk grows wider as I continue: ¡°And while I think what you, your family and the nobles did was unforgivable, I won¡¯t show any mercy on the scumbags who started the war.¡±