I cursed loudly as I ran through the city. “Fuck! Why now of all times?!”
But of course, complaining wouldn’t change anything. The evening bells continued ringing in my ears as I ran.
Calm down! Think this through! I ordered myself, organizing my thoughts as fast as I could.
The Hohoho Hag’s words confirmed that the Vampire of Freelea event could now be triggered, and that the world age had advanced to two. However, just because the event could be triggered didn’t mean it would be starting right away. Indeed, it was possible there was no need for this haste and I’d find the Rose Manor completely unchanged. However, I didn’t slow my pace at all.
Rose’s smile flashed through my mind. I had told myself over and over not to get too attached to her. I also knew that there would be an easy way to clear this event, so long as I was willing to sacrifice her. But after spending the day with her, after learning more about her than I ever had in the game and seeing her genuine smile, I couldn’t remain impartial.
As if I could abandon her now! I’ve spent too much time with her to think of her as just some NPC!
A lot of people stared as they watched me sprint full-tilt toward the Rose Manor, but I paid them no mind. All I cared about was reaching Rose as fast as possible.
As I reached for my sword, I suddenly heard Radd’s voice from behind me.
“Holy shit, old man, you’re fast! Slow down a bit!”
I slowed a little and looked over my shoulder. “Radd?!”
He was running as fast as he could, but he was slowly falling behind. He wasn’t the only one there either. Recilia and Prana were a short distance ahead of him, while Nyuuk and Mana were a bit behind.
“Why are you guys—?”
“Isn’t that obvious?!” Radd shouted, cutting me off. “If you’re in that much of a rush, then something serious is happening, isn’t it? Well, we can fight too. So let us help you out, at least a little. We’ve gotta pay you back for all the help you’ve given us.”
“Radd...” I was so surprised by the sudden display of sincerity from Radd that I wasn’t sure what to say. My steps naturally slowed, and Recilia finally caught up to me.
“You’re heading to the Rose Manor, right, brother? What do you think you’ll be able to accomplish without me by your side?” She gave me a pointed stare.
“You’ve...got a point. My bad.”
I really did need to calm down. I waited for the others to catch up as well, then said, “All right guys, follow me. I’m gonna need your help for this one.”
“He he he he. You got it!”
❈❈❈
Once everyone was ready, I resumed the mad dash toward the Rose Manor. As we drew near, we spotted Rose standing in her mansion’s front garden.
“Rose!” I shouted.
She jumped in surprise. “Rex? And everyone else as well? Did you need something?”
She was still holding on tightly to the Fire Rod I’d given her. It seemed we’d managed to reach Rose right as she’d returned home. She hadn’t been attacked yet, and the only thing she seemed surprised by was the fact that I’d shown up right after we’d said goodbye for the day.
Guess I was worried for nothing.
The world’s age moving forward had come at such an inauspicious time that I’d jumped to conclusions. I let out a long, relieved sigh. This wasn’t a game, but an actual world. I wasn’t even the true protagonist, so of course I wouldn’t show up just as some critical event was about to occur.
I’m gonna have to apologize to Radd and the others for dragging them all the way here for no reason, I thought. But just as I turned to Radd, Prana pointed behind me and shouted, “Rex!”
I turned back around. “Wha—?!”
Rose was turned toward us so she hadn’t noticed it yet, but a large black mass of something was gathering behind her.
“Are those...bats?” Radd muttered.
They were indeed the same jet-black bats we’d encountered in the mansion’s basement. They clumped together, forming the outline of a humanoid figure. Then, a second later, the clump of bats transformed into a man in his forties wearing a tuxedo and a stylish cape.
The fluttering of the man’s cape alerted Rose to his presence and she turned around. “Uncle?”
The monster Rose believed to be her kind uncle smiled and bowed regally to her. “It’s finally time. I’ve come for you, Rose.”
“What do you mean you’ve come for me, uncle?”
I stepped between the vampire and Rose, holding my hand out to keep her from running to him. “Sorry, but we’re not handing her over,” I said, glaring at him.
“R-Rex?!” Rose stammered, confused.
The vampire gave me an amused look, and said, “Oho. You may not know this, but she and I are family. Outsiders like you, who know nothing of our deep bond, should—”
“I know all about you.” I pulled out a book out of my Inventory and thrust it at him.
“What’s this?”
“A diary I found in the mansion’s underground library. You wrote down everything from your motives to your goals in it, Vampire Lord Veltar!”
For the first time, the vampire’s smile slipped. Rose looked up at him in shock.
“Vampire Lord? Uncle, what is...”
Veltar ignored Rose, his gaze fixed on me. “You little...”
If looks could kill, his would have definitely killed me. But I’d seen my fair share of deadly battlefields, and I wasn’t going to back down that easily.
“You plan on cursing Rose to revive your precious Demon Lord, don’t you? Well, you’ll have to get through me first.”
Veltar’s lips curled up into a grin. “Curse? You think it’s a curse? Bwa ha ha ha ha!” He covered his face with his right hand, laughing maniacally. “Don’t get too cocky, you puny human!” His smile vanished, replaced by a look of pure rage.
“Uncle...” Rose murmured. She had likely never seen Veltar make such an expression.
The Vampire Lord held his hands out, and his nails turned red and began extending, turning into blades that glittered in the moonlight. “Get back, Rose.”
“B-But...”
I drew my sword and said, “This is a job for us adventurers. Hunting monsters is what we do.”
❈❈❈
The Vampire of Freelea event chain was long enough that it continued through multiple game ages. You met Rose during age one, Veltar cursed her in age two, and in age three, you finally found a ray of hope if you triggered the right event flags. Basically, you’d start hearing rumors of a powerful exorcist who might be able to remove Rose’s curse, and the true protagonist’s party would then go hunting for this mysterious exorcist.
When you finally found the exorcist, she would use a Purification Doll to trace the curse back to its origins and also teach you the current location of its caster, Veltar.
Ironically, he turned out to be still inside Rose Manor.
Armed with this new information, you were able to choose a new dialogue option with Rose that led to her telling you that she’d seen her uncle heading underground long ago. Then you could search the manor’s library and find the hidden entrance to the underground dungeon.
It was the kind of story that often got turned into a parable. After looking all over the world for something, you ended up discovering it was right beside you all along.
The diary I’d shown Veltar was something you were normally only supposed to find after completing all of the prerequisite events. In it, he’d written about his unceasing efforts to try and revive his masters, the Demon Lords.
The Demon Lords of this world were monsters who’d been granted extraordinary strength by the evil god. However, that had also inextricably tied them to said god, and they were powerless without him. As a result, when the evil god had been sealed away for the first time, the fourth Demon Lord had entrusted a powerful relic to his followers and gone into a deep slumber beneath Rose Manor. Veltar had transcribed the Demon Lord’s last words before he went into hibernation in his diary:
After...light awakens, stand before... Offer...heart...
Because of how much time had passed, the passage where Veltar had written the words down had faded and wasn’t fully decipherable. But the gist of it was that after the Goddess of Salvation gave her message to the entire world, someone would need to offer a heart to him and he would be revived. In other words, this particular Demon Lord had already predicted that the evil god’s seal would be broken right after the Goddess of Salvation’s appearance and had planned ahead. That was also why Veltar had said “It’s finally time.”
Naturally, BB’s protagonist, the Hero of Light, wouldn’t just sit back and let a Demon Lord be revived. This meant that after you discovered what Veltar was up to, you’d fight your way down to the bottom of the basement of Rose Manor and confront the Vampire Lord.
One would think just beating Veltar would prevent the revival of the Demon Lord, but BB wasn’t so nice a game. There was one final twist to this particular scenario—after the fight, as Veltar lay dying, he would laugh triumphantly and tell the player that the Mark of the Curse was actually baked into the Demon Lord’s relic, and that he wasn’t the caster. Therefore, the only way to free Rose from the curse would be to kill the fourth Demon Lord.
God, what a fucked up event.
The way Veltar had laughed just before he died was identical to the way he was laughing right now, and I still remembered how utterly hopeless the ensuing battle with the fourth Demon Lord had been in the game version. You had to fight him right after beating Veltar, and it had been impossibly hard. I absolutely did not want to deal with that guy again.
I need to stop this guy now, while we still have a chance.
I absolutely could not let things happen the way they did in the game. Fortunately, if we were able to kill Veltar here, we’d be able to cut off the entire event chain.
I gripped my sword tight, preparing for battle.
“Old man...” Radd said slowly, walking up beside me.
I glanced over, and the sight of his determined expression helped calm me down a little. Veltar was strong, certainly. After all, he was a boss you fought in the game’s third age after fighting your way through a tough dungeon.
But he’s still someone we can beat.
Undead monsters had a lot of powerful abilities, but they also had glaring weaknesses. In Veltar’s case, both his strengths and weaknesses were taken to the extreme, so it was more of a gimmick event fight than a proper boss battle. Moreover, vampires had a lot of skills that buffed their survivability, but their actual HP was low. If we managed to get clean hits in, we’d be able to kill Veltar pretty quickly.