Chapter 85
――Dran, I was still young when I first met you. However, I was astounded by how easily you defeated someone like the Noble Vampire.
I, too, was a vampire, so I was prepared to face you as an enemy or at least keep my guard up. You probably have no idea how startled I was when you approached me so boldly and without fear.
Even after I invited you into the carriage, you continued surprising me with your attitude and behavior.
While I chatted with you, who wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of me, I felt the joy of speaking to someone else for the first time in a long while.
Therefore, I renewed my vow to defeat Giorr even if my life was at stake so that you and your friends would not be hurt.
It was my vengeance on Giorr, but I ended up needing your help to do so. When I think back on this, I can’t help but feel a little embarrassed.
Dran, I owe you great thanks that the scars on my face—ones I never thought would heal—were healed. In addition, I was also able to defeat Giorr and achieve my revenge alongside everyone in my homeland.
Ah… And the time when you walked with me in your arms under the moonlight.
I was neither the Queen of Valkyrios nor a foolish avenger. I was just a woman named Dramina.
Although I’m much older, being held in your arms stirred memories within me. I recalled the first time I felt at ease when I lost my hometown, no, or perhaps it would be more fitting to say when I was born.
It was a sensation that overcame my heart and my body as it enveloped me. At that time, I genuinely wished that time could stop.
Yet, I was too careless and forced you into something you didn’t want to do. It still pains my heart to think about what had happened. Please forget about that incident.
After parting with you, I was able to mourn everyone in the country and welcome the dawn of a new era of vampires. I’m thrilled to say that I’m finally able to behave in a way that would not disappoint you.
Please feel free to laugh at the shameless woman that I am. Despite having been the leader of an entire kingdom, I’m now obsessed with one man.
Ah, Dran, Dran.
However, this feeling in my heart continues ballooning day by day. This heart that shouldn’t be pulsing beats passionately. Each time it does, I can’t help thinking of you.
Dran, I love y――
Dramina stopped moving the black crystal pen she was using to write. She read the outpouring of her heart time and again. Her white skin, so clear that it would make porcelain seem dull, flushed with a tinge of red.
Presently, Dramina was travelling in a carriage across the sea after she had left Scarlet Land and its crimson soil. In her private room, she was writing a letter to Dran.
Dramina had thought that a surprise visit to Dran would be fun, but she had changed her mind after some contemplation. It seemed a lot better to send a word of notice about her arrival. Hence, she had planned to inform Dran about the time she would reach. After looking through her own letter, she realized that the contents had ended up in this manner. No matter how one read it or understood it, this piece of writing was evidently a love letter.
With her flaming red cheeks, Dramina was almost steaming from her head. Despite being the only person in the room, she cleared her throat. Then, she opened the table’s drawer and stuffed her letter in it.
She was bubbling with an urge to crumple the letter up and hurl it into a trash basket. However, she reckoned it would be good reference material if she wanted to write a love letter to Dran in the future.
「Gosh, I end up being like this whenever it comes to Dran. I can’t let His Royal Highness Aseiram or Duke Greylan see this.」
Dramina cupped her cheeks which were burning far hotter than a vampire’s body temperature should be. With her hands on her face, she mumbled in frustration as she succumbed to her uncontrollable feelings.
However, her vexation was accompanied by delight and excitement. This mixture of feelings was probably the result of realizing that Dran was the root of her soaring temperature.
Dramina continued thinking about Dran for some time, squirming as she remained lost in her thoughts. Finally, she gripped her pen firmly and started on a new letter to Dran conveying her visit.
By the time Dramina had moved away from that very first love letter to this formal notice, she had already used up twenty sheets of writing paper.
*
As Dramina headed for Bern village, Lenia had also left her hometown of the Blaster Blast territories. Lenia, too, was making her way to Bern village quickly. Presently, she was on board a shared carriage from Clauze Village, a relay point between Galois and Bern village.
Shenna, the daughter of the village headman, had requested Dran to set up this shared carriage running between Bern and Clauze. This service was established in response to the increasing number of merchants traveling to Bern looking for special items from Ente forest, as well as the boom in hot spring customers to Dran’s Bathhouse.
There were ten rows of seats facing forward on each side of a long and narrow passage, and luggage racks overhead. This large box-shaped carriage could be used by forty people at a time. In addition to the bouncing cotton on the seats and along the carriage body, other springs and cushion devices had been installed to absorb the impact of the carriage’s movement. This exquisite carriage was comparable to—and possibly exceeded the quality of—the most luxurious carriages used by aristocrats.
The passengers of this carriage and their luggage amounted to a tremendously hefty weight. Four horse golems with formidable horsepower had been specially made to draw this carriage and act as the passengers’ escorts.
Unlike regular horse golems, these four had a thin foil-like armor made of mithril and damascus as their outer layer. Moreover, they had been equipped with high-power engines that could produce 1,000 horsepower, skeleton frames that could withstand such output, and terrifyingly acute senses.
In addition, Dran had also added combat functions that had not been equipped on horse golems for some time. These abilities served to fend off attacks by robbers or monsters. As a result, each horse golem wielded power comparable to a hundred warriors.
The people walking from Clauze village to Bern village had been startled when the path had been paved with cobblestones overnight. However, there was one more change that astounded them. Stunning stone statues had been lined up on both sides of the pathway. Anyone who saw these statues would no doubt stop and gawk, utterly lost in awe.
The stone statues, which had been set up shortly after the road to the village of Bern had been covered with cobblestones, were so elaborate that they seemed like they would come to life and start speaking at any moment.
These sculptures spoke of ancient heroes fighting the Hydra, mythological saints praying to their god, warriors straddling Gryphons and bellowing valiantly, prophets proclaiming their god’s mission in front of the people, and countless other legends across history.
After the construction of the public lodging, Dran had erected these meticulously sculpted statues as part of his plan to develop Bern village into a tourist attraction.
The finesse and austerity of these lifelike sculptures would no doubt bring master sculptors across the ages to bow their heads in admiration. Rather than stir intense jealousy, these depictions of almighty gods could only be marvelled at in wonderment.
No matter how peerless or miraculous the world’s master sculptors were, Dran possessed a single advantage over all of them. He had seen most of the gods, ancient demons, and heroes depicted in these statues.
Modern sculptures and paintings had slowly morphed over time due to the passing down of legends and personal touches by craftsmen. As a result, these creations differed from Dran’s stone statues, which captured the true exalted and august forms of these gods.
Among the passengers of the shared carriage travelling down the pathway, some began to pray to the gods and others were even moved to tears.
As for Lenia, she was not interested in these gods and demons depicted by the statues. However, her spirits were lifted and her heart soared with pride when she witnessed how awestruck these passengers were by her father’s works.
No matter where Lenia went, her mind was always occupied by her admiration and reverence for Dran.
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