Chapter 97
The kingdom of the vampires, Mjolnir.
The capital was established on the premise that it would be night time at all times.
Surrounding the domain of the kingdom was constant darkness given birth to by Benetnash’s arcane magic which did not permit the light of day to ever enter.
As a consequence, there was no concept of morning, afternoon or evening in this kingdom.
The entire area surrounding the kingdom was constantly in a state of midnight.
In these circ.u.mstances, there were streetlights prepared throughout the kingdom, faintly providing artificial light.
For the other humanoids, it might be considered dark. However, for the vampires, it was just the right amount of lighting.
The structures within the kingdom were precisely those belonging to medieval Europe.
Nevertheless, as one could have expected, it was nothing like normal cities. No matter what building or castle one looked at, it was built luxuriously. There was not a single building that looked ordinary or in a deplorable state.
Vampires were the aristocrats of the night. Every citizen within this kingdom was a n.o.ble and affluent – that’s what Dina had told me.
Of course, it was not as if there was no one who did manual labour.
All over the kingdom, there were those that were working and opening the stores. However, those activities were not done by the vampires but by a species of undead categorised as ghouls.
Apparently, they were human corpses that were mutated by mana and reanimated, a bunch of pitiful existences which could not even leave any offspring behind.
In other words, although they could always only last for a single generation, as long as there were corpses and mana, they could be born without any restriction.
Therefore, although they could not prosper, they could not be exterminated either.
Well, they’re pretty much what you call zombies. As there were only good looking ones within the capital, it was fortunate that one would not feel any disgust when looking at them.
If one were to ignore the fact that they looked blue, they looked exactly like normal humans. Furthermore, one could even converse with them.
The ghouls, who had nowhere to go, were permitted to live within Mjolnir and somehow pa.s.sed their days by living in conditions almost no different from that of slaves.
Notwithstanding that I felt a little pity for them, I supposed having a place to live was better than nothing.
There was no way that they would be able to enter the boundaries of the other countries. If they were also denied entry into this country, their only fate would be to be subjugated as moving corpses.
Those ghouls who were heavily deformed were not even permitted to enter this country. Life was definitely hard for the ghouls.
This was what I wanted to say: A grave should not be made in a location dense with mana.
Therefore, the graves in this world were ordinarily built behind monasteries and were enveloped by mana repellent barriers cast by acolytes.
If such a thing were not done, there would be an outbreak of zombies.
Notwithstanding all of that, zombies still arose.
One of the causes could be attributed to those individuals who were scared of dying. They might intentionally go to a location where mana was dense so that they could be reanimated as zombies.
It was not as if I could not understand why they did it… but I questioned their will to continue living even if they were to become zombies.
“I’ll have one clăt.i.te.”[1]
“Here ya go!”
Anyways, just because they were zombies did not mean they were an existence that one had to be scared of.
Just as there were humans with good and bad intentions, in this world, the zombies retained the personalities of their previous lives.
Therefore, the good individuals remained good and bad individuals remained bad even after they turned into zombies.
Nevertheless, as one would have expected, the humanoids would consider the ghouls as nothing more than magical beasts and felt it was perfectly reasonable to turn them into ash without a second thought.
When I ordered from a blue-faced middle-age man working as a street vendor, he handed me a snack that looked like a crepe with his hands which were enveloped by a clean pair of gloves.
After paying for the snack and biting into it, a jam that tasted like it was made from something similar to a strawberry overflowed into my mouth.
Hmm, it did not seem like they would be handing me something rotten just because they were zombies.
If I were to put things into a perspective that was easier to understand, there existed a distinction within the kingdom where the vampires were the upper cla.s.s and the zombies were the manual labourers.
And… the roads were slightly unique.
Because I flew in, I was able to see it, but this kingdom was shaped in a strange way if one were to look from above.
The kingdom was perfectly circular and surrounded by walls.
And within the walls, the large roadways largely divided the kingdom into what looked to be a heptagram.
I felt like taking my time to go around the area as a tourist, but unfortunately, the reason for my visit this time was not to be a tourist.
The reason I was here was none other than to accept the invitation from Benetnash.
Truthfully, I wanted to handle Leon and Tyrfing first. However, if I were to leave her alone, I did not know what she was going to start doing.
In the worst-case scenario, there was even the possibility of getting pincered by Leon and Benetnash.
Therefore, I left Dina and the 12 Stars in charge of Leon and came to this location alone.
Now that I thought about it, ever since I had arrived in this world, excluding the moment right after the summoning, this was the first time I was completely alone.
“Well, if it’s just a little, it should be fine. I’ll just go around lightheartedly.”
“Oi, you.”
Since I’m actually at the vampire’s kingdom, I suppose I’ll take this occasion to have a quick tour.
As I was thinking that, someone talked to me from behind.
When I turned to look, there was someone with the appearance of a country’s princess, who had her arms crossed and was looking at me with displeasure.
I’ve been thinking about it since before, but you have quite light footwork, don’t you? Oi.
All things considered, is it even fine for someone like you to be casually coming out to the middle of the town like this? You’re still one of the 7 Heroes, after all.
“Oh… Hey, Benet.”
“Don’t you ‘Hey, Benet’ me. When I was wondering what you were doing for you to not turn up at the castle even when I sensed your presence arriving at the kingdom, even though I was waiting… you… you’re pretty bold to be touring around the place whilst ignoring me.”
“Haha, no need to rush things too much. I was planning to properly head to your place afterwards.”
Although this was an irrelevant fact for the moment, whenever I said Benetnash, it was always automatically changed to a more intimate nickname, “Benet”.
In all likelihood, it was because the real Ruphas had always referred to her that way.
Additionally, for some reason, I did not feel any sense of unease towards her.
Although I understood that she was a dangerous individual, strangely, I felt a greater feeling of goodwill towards her.
Of course, it was something different from a feeling of s.e.xual affection…
But how should I phrase this?
For example, a friend who’s in an equal position?
It felt as if I was speaking to someone like that. I could not help but feel a sense of closeness towards her.
Surprisingly, the individual who was most acknowledged by the real Ruphas was likely to be this Benetnash.
“By the way, do you have any places you’d recommend visiting within the capital? Oh yeah, I’m also looking for souvenirs but I haven’t been able to find them.”
“…. You… did your personality get somewhat softer?”
“I’ve been asked that a lot.”
It was a rare occasion where I finally got to meet the last of the 7 Heroes.
From the way that she spoke, I was able to figure out that she was not in the same condition as I was, however, I expected this from the beginning.
Nevertheless, it was just too dull to start a death match right after the reunion.
It was not strange for me to want to have a chat with her and get to know what kind of an individual she was.
I ordered another clăt.i.te from the store and shoved it into the complaining Benetnash’s mouth.
“In any event, instead of talking here… – mmuguu!?”
“Don’t say something so stiff. It’s a special occasion. It’ll be boring to just start killing and get things over so quickly right after the reunion. Here, come and show me the key highlights of this kingdom.”
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Personality-wise, the other 7 Heroes were friendlier and warmer. There was no mistake in that.
Nevertheless, although it was strange, I felt that she was the easiest to get along with.
After all, she did not have that sense of strange psyche towards me.
She was neither like the 12 Stars who felt excessive admiration towards me nor was she like the 7 Heroes who were psychologically oppressed from their guilt.
She was neither fearful of me nor was she was like Dina where I could not tell what she was thinking.
It would be easier to say she was just natural. She was standing in the same position that I was.
And the current me could not help but feel a sense of ease and comfort.
Though… there’s also something wrong with me, considering that I’m feeling this way even when she’s constantly releasing insatiable bloodl.u.s.t towards me.
*
After being ushered by Benetnash, the location that I came upon was something like a colosseum.
She had probably wanted to fight with me as soon as possible. However, when I said, “I guess I’ll go home now”, she quickly took on the role of showing me around the kingdom. She was so easy to understand and handle.
In all honesty, I would have loved to drag this on, create a loose atmosphere, and avoid the battle itself.
After all, based on what I have heard so far, if Benetnash was defeated, the humanoids would suffer significantly detrimental effects that would likely lead to them falling into a horrible condition.
It was because Benetnash existed that the demon race was unable to advance further.
If I were to word it differently, it would mean that if she was defeated, that would become possible.
As such, as a personal preference, I would have wanted to delay the battle with her until later.
(TLN: If you are sensitive to (animal) violence, you might want to consider skipping the rest of the chapter, though it’s actually not very graphic.)
“This place is an arena for magical beasts. We make captured magical beasts fight each other to the death and gamble on who will win. It’s the most popular pastime in the capital.”
“You have quite a b.l.o.o.d.y pastime.”
“Lately, there’s quite a lot of magical beasts trying to invade us from Tyrfing, so we’re not really lacking in partic.i.p.ants. It also serves as an execution for the magical beasts, you see.”
Although she just said something outrageous as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world, if one were to consider this world’s level of civilisation, it was not very strange overall.
Even back on Earth, the executions in the Middle Ages served as a form of entertainment for the other citizens.
After all, there were even records stating that in France and England, a large number of people turned up to watch public executions.
Additionally, this place was the kingdom of the vampires who were known to be belligerent. Furthermore, the ones who were being executed were the enemy country’s magical beasts.
So it was no wonder any feelings of pity or morals were not part of the equation.
The only people who would say such a thing as “why you are doing such a horrible thing?!” would be individuals who had lived in a peaceful country and had time to learn such things as morals.
The problem was… even as an individual who had grown up in j.a.pan, had become blinded by peace, and had time to learn such morals, I did not feel very repulsed by what was happening.
It was not as if I did not feel like pitying them.
Yeah, I even thought that they were doing something quite horrible.
But above all of that, I understood and accepted that, “Well yeah, it’s just that kind of a country.”
I’ve reached quite a dangerous place already.
“Since we’re already here, do you want to make a bet?”
“Sure.”
After being asked as such by Benetnash, I looked at the arena.
Although it was called an arena, because it was entirely surrounded by walls and escape was absolutely impossible, it would be better to call it a prison.
The vampires were looking down from a safe height and were having a good time as they were shouting things out.
And the ones in the arena looked like a hippo-like animal with a strong-looking body and a weasel-like animal with a small stature.
In terms of size, the hippo was towering over five metres whereas the weasel was at most one metre. Just applying common sense, one would not think that the weasel stood any chance at winning.
The odds were clearly in favour of the hippo, and in actual fact, even when I looked at the status of each, the hippo was in the lead.
With all that considered, this was nothing but one side bullying the other.
“Then I’ll bet 50 eru towards the hippo.”
“That’s quite a cheap way to bet.”
As expected of the monarch of the kingdom. The perception of the value of money was completely different.
In terms of j.a.panese yen, 50 eru was equivalent to approximately 10,000 yen.[2] Therefore I had bet quite a significant amount.
Nevertheless, for her, the amount must have been like pocket change.
She was looking at me with an exasperated expression.
Subsequently, when the deathmatch began, as expected, the hippo was winning by an overwhelming margin.
Of course, it was. After all, the physiques of the two were completely different.
As one could see from how boxing cla.s.ses were finely divided every few kilograms, weight could sometimes be directly equated with strength.
In this world, such a thing could mostly be ignored due to individual stats. However, even when it came to their statuses, the hippo was in the lead as well.
As a consequence, the match was almost as good as set before it even began.
The hippo’s body slammed into the weasel quite strongly and the small weasel’s body danced midair.
Its arms and feet were broken and bent into weird shapes. It was obvious that the weasel was pushed to the brink of death after just a single hit.
Nevertheless, the weasel tried to re-posture itself as it was falling down and gnawed into the hippo’s neck.
Maybe it was the weasel’s last fart. Well, it wasn’t farting though.
As I was thinking about such a thing, I noticed that something was strange. The weasel’s teeth were dug into the hippo and did not let go. The hippo was screaming and struggling about in agony.
Eventually, the hippo gave in to the pain and lost consciousness, suffering the fate of having its body greedily devoured by the weasel.
…. The smaller one just ended up winning, oi.
“Fufu, looks like you predicted it wrong. Haverines might be small, but they’re completely fearless. They’re dangerous predators that bite at the prey until its last breath. In this arena, there’s a tradition of being able to make a giant killing from them.”
“Haverines?”
“They’re a new species of magical beasts that started coming into existence after you were sealed up. They were originally a smaller wolverine that mutated into a magical beast.”
When I looked around, I saw that a bunch of vampires were fuming and saying, “Another one got done in by him again!”
I see, I see, it seemed those guys also predicted it wrong like I did.
As I was thinking I got played, I paid out the 50 eru bet reluctantly.
If it were to be known later that I lost it due to a bet, Libra is going to scold me…