Okay. He’s dead. I’ll kill him before going home, Vlad decided. It’s fine. I can win. I can totally win. There’s no way I would lose against someone who’s half-dead like this. That thought made it obvious that Vlad was a very small person indeed.
“Very well. It seems you have a death wish! I will gladly relieve you of your life’s blood!”
Vlad flapped his mantle and lunged forward at the man’s neck, his mouth open to bite.
He’d used the skill Blood Drain. It was a Grappler-class skill, only available to vampires, that stole the target’s vitality along with their blood. In the past, Vlad had used this skill to suck the life out of many to add it to his own, and another victim was about to be born here and now.
“Kha ha ha... Tremble in fear! Each moment that passes, your life is slipping out of you! No matter how you cry and wail, it is too late for regrets. You will now...now...?”
Vlad should have been overwhelmingly advantaged, but suddenly, he noticed that something was off. That’s weird. It doesn’t feel like I’m taking his life. It doesn’t look like he’s getting any weaker. In fact, it’s the opposite. His vitality is growing...and mine is... No, I’m losing my stocks?!
“O-Oh? Ooohhhh?!”
“I told you. Know your place. As if my life would ever be stolen by the likes of you. I was considering letting you go...but it seems people never learn. As always, they are arrogant, ignorant, and just plain ugly. I was happy when I met her, since she made me think that humanity might not be as bad as I thought, but... It seems Virgo is just special.” The man almost spat out those lines as he grabbed Vlad, who was trying to escape, by the head.
When he did so, he started to drain even more life out of his victim, and fear finally gained control of Vlad’s heart.
“However, it seems the amount of mana you possess is worthwhile, at least. This opportunity does not come every day... I shall take it for my own.”
With that, the man stole even more of Vlad’s lives. Then, after a few minutes, the feared true ancestor of the vampires that had once been rumored to have infinite lives had completely disappeared from this world.
“Are you here, Sanieve?”
“Ah, yes. I’ve been waiting.”
When Virgo came holding clothing and food, the man—Sanieve—greeted her with a smile. Though he was weakened, his looks were still good enough to make most women he smiled at faint. However, Virgo didn’t seem especially affected as she moved to place the goods in front of him.
“Sorry. I didn’t know what you liked, so I just bought what the store recommended,” said Virgo.
“Hmm... Clothing design has not changed much from the past.”
Sanieve took the clothes out of the bag and looked them over closely. He still nodded in approval though; it seemed he didn’t have much of a preference.
Virgo paused. “Huh? Is it just me or do you look a little better than before?”
“Oh, I found a bat in the cave by coincidence and just finished eating it.”
“Huh? I-Is that really all right?”
“It was not very delicious, no.” Sanieve laughed like he just told a joke.
He seemed moody at first, but he’s actually pretty easy to talk to, Virgo thought.
“Still, I can’t be greedy. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mouse or a frog. if it’s edible, I still need to eat,” Sanieve explained.
“That sounds harsh.”
“It is. By the way, there’s something I’d like to ask... You are of quite the high level, aren’t you? Are there many like you in today’s world?”
He noticed Virgo’s high level. However, it wasn’t that strange an occurrence. The barrier to obtain the skill Observing Eye wasn’t that high, and it was available to everyone. The user would be unable to view accurate stats if the target was of a higher level, but they would still be able to understand that whoever they were looking at was stronger, at least. Virgo was sure that skill was what he’d used.
“No, not that many. According to Miss Lufas, the average has actually gone down by quite a lot.”
“Lufas...? Sorry, but I’ve never heard that name.”
“Is that so? She’s very famous though.”
“I’m unable to learn much about the outside. If possible, would you be willing to tell me what you know?”
After that, Virgo told Sanieve everything she knew. She told him about what had happened two hundred years ago and also about the conflict she had partaken in recently. She left out some details, of course, such as Alovenus coming under Lufas’s command. Still, she told him everything an average person living in Mizgarz would know.
After hearing all that, Sanieve looked surprised. “So something like that happened...? I wondered why everything seemed to be so tumultuous outside.”
“Were you moved to the Ark at that time?”
“Hmm? ...Yeah, I suppose so. I’m sure that’s what happened. I have no idea what occurred, but I’m sure I was on that Ark or whatever it is you called it.”
It wasn’t strange that Sanieve didn’t understand what had happened. Before their fight with the ouroboroses, Lufas had lifted land off of Mizgarz wholesale before carrying it into the Ark as intact as possible. That meant most people hadn’t even noticed they’d been moved into the Ark until it had been explained to them. Sanieve was living in a cave, too, so it was only natural for the only thing he knew to be that there’d been a huge earthquake.
After all this, the two of them shifted subjects all over the place. Every once in a while, Sanieve would tell Virgo something of the past, which impressed her. Eventually, Virgo noticed that time had flown by too fast, and she stood up.
“Okay then. I need to excuse myself here.”
“Ah, it’s already time? Time sure flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?” Sanieve smiled somewhat sadly before asking Virgo a question. “Will you...come again? I’d like to continue talking with you.”
“It was fun for me too. I’ll come back soon!” Virgo said with a smile before flapping her wings and flying away.
While watching her fly off, Sanieve quietly smiled.
“Virgo...huh? This is the first time I’ve seen a soul as clear as that,” Sanieve muttered quietly before returning to his cave.
I’ve finally found what I was looking for...
ＥＸ－４
After that first day, Virgo regularly visited Sanieve.
When she thought about it, Virgo realized that she didn’t have many friends she could relax around. Sei was more than a friend, and from Virgo’s point of view, the other Thirteen Stars and Lufas were more like superiors. The former hero’s party was also somewhat different from normal friends to her and would be best described as close acquaintances.
By heaven-winged standards, Virgo was still young enough to be called a child. Before she’d left the forest with Lufas, she had no friends, and it had been strange for her to be living in a forest in the first place. She was at the age where she wanted friends, so Virgo quickly became close with Sanieve.
For his part, Sanieve seemed to love Virgo’s visits, and every time she came, he seemed happy to see her.
“And then Aigokeros started eating weeds while still in his human form!” Virgo said.
“Ha ha ha! That must have been a sight! I would have wanted to see that.”
Sanieve was a great listener, and he would respond in just the right way to Virgo’s stories with great timing, which just made talking all the more fun for her.