Section 28 Half-beast

"No way...... the little girl was stunned, and Laria muttered softly. Judging from the tone of the wind chimes, it is not that she is talking, but that she has indeed investigated carefully.

"The so-called Lord Duke likes girls between the ages of twelve and seventeen...... It's just a pretense. Wind Chimes said. "It was a lie from the beginning. ”

"Why lie. The little girl immediately calmed down. Wouldn't it be better if vampires didn't eat people? Wouldn't it be more acceptable to people?

"Maybe it's just...... Disguise yourself. Anyway, he has been called a 'vampire' by humans, and the coffin is closed. No matter how you say it, no one will believe it. In that case, it would be better to use this in reverse and make everyone fearful. ”

"This ...... Totally unreasonable......"

"Reasonable? There are many unreasonable things in the world. Lord Duke is the last one in the world, he has no kind, and he can only be alone forever. Even if it's Scarlet or Leia, it can't really soothe the loneliness and loneliness in his heart. Imagine the same, humans disappear and you live alone in the middle of a group of monkeys. Even if you become the Monkey King, what can you do?" "I shouldn't have told you so much. ”

"Aren't we afraid of being heard here?" asked Laria. "I've heard all the sounds in the castle, and the Scarlet Duke can hear. ”

"If he's listening. Wind Chimes replied. Then she walked out the door and left one last word. "You've been lucky, keep it alive and don't be stupid to abandon it. ”

What she meant...... What we said wasn't leaked?" asked the little girl softly after the door was closed.

"I don't know. Laria was also a little dazed. She instinctively sensed that the castle ...... This Sivania, or this human world, is about to have great things. And at the heart of it all lies in ...... The Scarlet Duke and Eshurufat.

Then she realized that the key point might be tonight. Because Ashrufat, who stole the key last night, will come to their rescue, and this time, the castle will be ready.

......

The afterglow of dusk slowly faded into the sky. The noisy city gradually fell silent.

In a tavern in the New Town, or rather, the one closest to the Dark Castle, Ashrufat leaned against the wall, behaving like an idle idler (the kind of person who was always the least noticeable), listening to the noise of the tavern and watching the sky darkening overhead.

By dusk today, he had seen the vampire return to the castle. In short, a sizable team emerges from the portal of the new city and makes its way through the city to the Dark Castle.

Ashrufat didn't dare to look closely, but he was sure it was the Scarlet Duke, the vampire who ruled the land. According to those publications of the Church, it is the last and strongest vampire. Even among the vampires, he is the strongest of the strong. At this moment, the vampire must have known about last night. No, he already knew, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to explain the twins' sudden attack this morning.

Ashrufat didn't dare to leave anything to chance, for he knew very well how powerful vampires were.

If we exclude those factors of racial discrimination, it is obvious to everyone that the Scarlet Duke is impeccable in terms of politics, military, economy, and even personal wisdom and force. He was so powerful that some believe that he did not participate in the Battle of Kalean that year. Otherwise, the vampire clan would never have been wiped out by humans so easily.

Of course, the so-called "easy" is just a concept for ordinary people. Ashrufat now knows from Beller that the vampire war was not "easy" at all. In order to defeat the undead legions of Kalean and the powerful blood knights, humanity does not know how much it has to cost.

Speaking of which, since the end of the Battle of Callean, the Central Seven have not been very stable - as if it were a curse of the vampire clan. First came the Great Greenskin Invasion, then the War of Sivania, followed by the Civil War of Ryan, the Civil War of Shem, then the invasion from Chaos, and then the invasion of the Elves. There is constant internal strife, and externally it is one failure followed by another. So much so that in the nearly twenty years since the vampires conquered West Sylvania, no force has been able to muster the strength to eliminate the vampires.

Ahem, not to mention the past, no one will try to eliminate vampires even in the foreseeable future - assuming they don't do anything too out of the ordinary, of course. As the saying goes, rabbits bite when they're in a hurry, and while no one has the spare strength to deal with vampires, nations can still come together if they sense a deadly threat. For a neighbor with bad intentions, you can avoid him, ignore him, and pretend that he doesn't exist. But if it's a robber who kills the door, there is no choice but to pick up arms and fight to the death.

The night is getting darker - in the tavern, the dwarves are getting noisier and noisier after being drunk (Ashruphat remembers that the dwarves and vampires have a vendetta but doesn't understand why they came to West Vania to do business), but their voices don't rise, but they get quieter and quieter, and they seem to be noisier and louder in comparison. Like all dwarves, they have begun to boast about their past exploits - as everyone knows in humans, dwarves are always dishonest in their speech, always containing that "artistic exaggeration". There was a loud dwarf boasting about how he had killed six Greenskins with a single bullet, but after a few minutes, the six Greenskins had been added to four brothers with their fate.

“...... At that time, the Great Foundry rushed ahead, and I followed him, slashing down all the greenskins that stood in my way, one by one, with my axe......"

He looked at the sky and absentmindedly counted the time. He knew that tonight was a big risk—in fact, with that shield armor as his trump card, his odds of victory would not be more than forty percent. After all, the other party is the strongest among the vampire clan, and in addition to the advantage of the home field. Although vampires claim to be very aristocratic, even if they are nobles, it is normal for their subordinates to besiege invaders in their own mansions.

It's almost time.

The route of Ashrufat also made no difference last night. He had expected something different around the Dark Castle, but it was business as usual. He climbed into the castle through the low window, following the same path he had taken from the previous night's invasion. Although he carefully rechecked everything suspicious, nothing changed.

No magic, no mechanical traps, no guards on duty.

The entire Dark Castle was as lax as it was last night. Although Ashruphat was very careful at first, he soon realized that this was not a trap.

Or it can be understood that even if there are traps, they are not arranged on the first layer.

It's easy to understand the Scarlet Duke's idea for doing this: there are too many inhabitants on the first floor, and there are too many people to see, and it is really not suitable to lay a special trap. Obviously, both magic and mechanical traps don't discriminate against anyone who accidentally steps on them, whoever they are. If a man wants to catch a mouse in his house, he will never install those tiger traps with iron jaws, but rat traps that are harmless to humans - although tiger traps can kill rats instantly, they can also break the legs of family members. Again, the guards were not suitable - it was difficult for three or five guards to keep Ashrufat, and it was very likely that the overcrowded, very different arrangement of guards than usual, would be revealed and then spread through some channel (who knows if the intruders had an eyeline?).

The most important thing is that the Scarlet Duke has a hostage in his hands, so he doesn't have to care about the prey escaping at all. He could wait patiently for Ashrufat to come to the top.

The more laxity there is on the outside, the more dangerous the situation inside becomes—so Ashrufat inferred.

If the enemy has a battlefield waiting for you, the smartest strategy is not to go there. This is the obvious logic. But sometimes, the reason why others put the effort into setting up the battlefield is knowing that you have to go. Fighting is not something you can avoid if you want to, and if you don't go, it's more dangerous and troublesome.

Will it be the third or the second?" thought Ashrufat. The vampire may have prepared a barbed trap, but he would never have expected him to be covered in an unbreakable eggshell.

He didn't know how long the force field shield on that armor would last, but he would have no problem thinking about it for a few hours.

Now, he was standing at the entrance to the staircase that led to the underground cell. If he's not mistaken, the little girl and Laria are there now waiting for him to rescue them. And he does have the key to open the cell door in his hand now. Maybe he should fix this little problem first and then go to the vampire?

Then he vetoed the method.

Because obviously, if he succeeds, he will naturally be able to take the two of them with him. If he fails, then the little girl will not be able to escape from Sivania. Instead, he did so by further exposing his weaknesses and giving the vampires a chance to take more hostages.

Ashrufat walked all the way forward, following the path he had taken last night, to the upward staircase that led to the second floor. He soon began to see something strange. Last night, he had avoided the figures who were still moving around at night, and this night they were gone. That's right, everyone obediently huddled in their rooms and closed the door. The corridors, aisles, and squares are all empty, not to mention people, not even a ghost.

If this is an accident, an accident, then I'm afraid Ashrufat himself doesn't believe it.

Waiting for me?" he chuckled inwardly. A vampire may be dangerous, but he's not harmless.

A figure at the mouth of the stairs.

Ashrufat was far away, and there was someone there. But in fact, this figure has been hazy and unreal. This was not normal, as Ashrufat had dark vision—he could even see the carved lines on the wooden handrails on the side of the steps, but he couldn't see the details of the figure. He could—and could only deduce—that the figure was small in size and in a strange posture.

As he got closer, he finally realized that the reason for this visual weirdness was camouflage. The color of the figure's body is so integrated with the steps that it is impossible to completely separate it from the background/background. It wasn't until he got close that he recognized it as a strange creature, the size of a human child, covered in fur and part, with a pair of fluffy and wobbling ears on its head. A tail is exposed behind him, and he is shaking from side to side with great energy.

The Semus - or, to use another, more colloquial name, "half-beasts". The half-beast was looking at him with a curious gaze that glittered in the darkness.

Ashrufat immediately remembered what Bayral had told him earlier. He had a half-beast servant - though he had completely forgotten about it (not even the cause and effect), but Beller would not lie to him. If Bayor wanted to deceive, he would never lie about such worthless details