Chapter 193: 103. The One Called the Saint (Part One)

**

I didn’t know any exquisite and detailed torture methods like the people from the Order of the Crimson Cross usually resorted to.

However, I certainly knew how to set the similar kind of vibe.

Currently, dear Baron Lava was dangling upside down in the air. His maggot-like body was struggling ungainly from side to side.

Right below him was a dug-out pit filled with holy water. As for the chains tightly binding and hoisting the Vampire Baron up? They were manned by my skeletons, obviously.

“Let’s play a little game.”

To bolster our terror-inducing atmosphere, I deliberately quoted a line from a thriller movie. Baron Lava flinched nastily and stared at me with trembling protruding eyes.

We were inside a completely closed-off space where only the pit of holy water was emitting enough light to illuminate the darkness away.

“There’s only one way for you to spare yourself from the suffering. And that is to answer my questions truthfully.”

While saying that, I perused the list of names recovered from Baron Lava’s possession. It contained most of the people in the Imperial Family.

Rose Darina’s name was among them.

“And your answer is?”

“H-how dare a measly livestock…!”

I snapped my fingers.

The skeletons tasked with holding the chains let go.

Baron Lava’s body fell headlong towards the ground and plunged under the surface of the holy water pit.

His flesh burned away and he began screeching out a bizarre scream. Ashes and acrid smoke quickly filled up the space.

The skeletons grabbed the chains and pulled him back up.

Baron Lava was hoisted back up in the air and his burning flesh quickly regenerated. That unique-to-Vampires regenerative ability sure was something else, alright.

What I initially planned for was one of those water torture thingies, but somehow, it ended up as painful as an acid torture for the Vampire.

While suffering from asphyxiation and the pain of his flesh burning away, Baron Lava repeatedly screamed for mercy, begging me to spare his life.

“Do you know about Rose Darina?”

“I, I don’t…”

I snapped my fingers again.

Baron Lava was dunked into the holy water pit once more.

A series of the same actions repeated themselves in a cycle for a while. I had him pulled out, asked him a question, and when he said he didn’t know anything…

One more time in the drink, then.

Without taking a break, I repeated it over and over again.

If I failed to get any hints in this place, then it’d be a complete dead-end for me, unable to go anywhere fast. I had plenty of time to kill, anyway – at least, until the execution of my brother Ruppel, that was.

Three and half days of non-stop dunking later, Baron Lava and his beet-red face finally relented and opened his hole-mouth. “I-I’ll, tell, you everything… Every… thing… P-please, just, just stop…”

Only then did I break out in a smile.

**

I strode outside the closed-off storehouse found in the village of Rost.

In front of the building were the First Prince of the Lome Kingdom, Barus Victoria and his escorting knights, plus Charlotte on standby.

I shifted my gaze over to her.

She still had a rather dissatisfied expression.

I figured that her pride was still wounded by the fact that she fell under the illusion magic cast by the likes of a measly little baron-class Vampire, and also, she was probably feeling rueful about me managing to snatch up her prey before she could deal with it.

I addressed them, “I know where Rose Darina could be.”

More correctly, the helper who was providing her with a safe haven.

The first person whose complexion noticeably perked up from my declaration was First Prince Barus. He obviously wanted to avoid the Theocratic Empire’s intervention in his kingdom’s affairs no matter what.

“D-does that mean that this incident being unrelated to the kingdom has finally been revealed?”

With my authority as the Seventh Imperial Prince, I could definitely withdraw the Heavenly Army dispatched to this kingdom. That’s what Barus was hoping for.

Too bad for him – I shook my head resolutely. The actual truth was the exact opposite to his hopes.

I replied. “Sorry, but it’s deeply related to your people.”

To be more specific, Barus wasn’t related to Rose Darina’s case. However, the kingdom of Lome was. And by quite a lot, too.

Barus looked stunned by my reply.

“The one protecting Rose is none other than…” I glared straight at him. “…the dragon slayer, Raiden.”

The First Prince of Lome shut his mouth and didn’t say anything for a little while. His complexion grew paler than a sheet of paper.

If what I said was true, then it would practically be the same as the Lome Kingdom sheltering Rose Darina. This revelation could even be used as a pretext for a full-scale invasion.

“B-but, please wait. Don’t you think something is wrong here?”

“…”

“A Vampire told you all these, didn’t he? How can a Vampire know about the whereabouts of the Second Crown Princess Consort, and also her relationship with Raiden…”

Barus’s question that seemed to go on for a bit gradually petered out towards the end. His jaw went slack from the mental shock as he grew quieter.

That’s because he had finally realised the truth.

Raiden, Rose Darina, and the Vampires…

“After all, they are all connected to each other.”

Indeed, they were all co-conspirators, that’s why.

**

The skeleton horses pulled our carriage along. The escorting knights were moving alongside our vehicle.

I was busy recalling what Baron Lava had told me earlier.

-Rose Darina, she was our informant. Not only did she give us information regarding the Theocratic Empire, she even helped us to get in touch with the blood-creations.

Rose’s role was to act as the connecting bridge between the Vampires and the nobles who wished to become Vampires themselves to enjoy an everlasting life.

Unfortunately, Baron Lava also didn’t know all the details.

That was solely down to the fact that even though he was a Progenitor Vampire, he had lived most of his life inside a dark cave somewhere, and this would be his first time being involved in a mission after receiving his peerage.

Baron Lava confessed to some other things as well.

-Also, the command of this mission has been taken up by a marquis.

‘Marquis’. It wasn’t a noble rank found among human societies but a ‘peerage’ system the Vampires used to denote one’s station among the pecking order.

-Raiden Behemoth. He is the Vampire Marquis in charge of this mission.

I slowly swept my head back while recalling the rest of Lava’s words.

-Because he wanted it, it was easy to turn him into a Vampire.

Two conditions had to be fulfilled in order to become a Vampire.

One, the blood of a Progenitor was a necessity to turn someone into a Vampire. And the other one was you wishing to become a Vampire and offering up your own soul as the price.

If the subordination contract was successfully formed, then you’d live on as the ‘servant’ of the Progenitor Vampire.

When Raiden’s age reached around eighty years old, he felt his physical body grow rapidly weaker. The days of his advanced age were stained by the persistent pain brought on by the grievous wound he suffered during the life-or-death battle against the dragon in the distant past.

And to someone like him…

-Rose Darina seduced him.

Rose gave him a way to ‘live’ again. To live a false life, and to live for all eternity.

She helped him be reborn as a Vampire that possessed the power to deny natural death itself.

-His majesty, the Vampire King, acknowledged him as the powerful human who had hunted a dragon down. As such, his majesty personally shared his own blood with Raiden, raised the latter’s status up to the Progenitor, and granted the peerage of marquis.

-Okay, fine. Where is Raiden, then?

-I really have no clue about that! The marquis usually sends out his orders through communiques. I am merely a puppet on a string, tasked with carrying out his orders! That’s all!

After getting the answers to some of my questions, I took care of Baron Lava for good.

While we rode on the carriage, I racked my brain trying to understand what the Vampires were angling for here.

But why would they? And how come?

Why were the Vampires still shielding Rose Darina even now?

Shouldn’t she be like a disposable pawn for them?

Maybe Rose still had some other uses left or something?

I couldn’t figure it out.

However, there was one thing that kept popping up my mind – the black-haired ‘maidservant’ that stuck around Rose Darina.

During the banquet in Humite, Ruppel abruptly asked me about that woman for some reason. But when I checked her out through [Mind’s Eye], she didn’t seem all that remarkable, and neither was she someone blessed with extraordinary talents.

Even then, Vampires were providing shelter to both her and Rose even now, so that could only mean that the two of them still had their uses left.

I swept my hair back again.

Back to square one, was it?

My new task was to locate this Vampire named Raiden. But how was I supposed to find out where he hid himself inside the kingdom of Lome?

Still, it wasn’t as if all available avenues had dried up.

For instance, the First Prince of Lome was sitting right before my eyes – I definitely needed Barus’s help here. After all, not many people out there would have as much in-depth knowledge in the current state of the Lome kingdom as him.

That’s why I…

“But how could this be…!”

I shifted my gaze over to Barus. He was staring outside the carriage with a face full of despair.

Even my brows were furrowed all by themselves too. A familiar but still disgusting stench began stabbing my nose in the next moment.

What greeted our travelling group as soon as leaving the forest’s highway was the sight of a devastated cityscape.