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Last Embryo Volume 4 Interlude Part 1

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Before continuing with the story, let us go back in time for a bit.

Two beautiful girls were sitting in a cove located a little bit to the south of the pier that has been attacked by the super sea beast. They both had a dazzling heads of hair that could easily be mistaken for the threads of pure gold, and they were combing them in quiet harmony. theirs would have been quite a picturesque image and a sight that would soothe any set of weary eyes that would be lucky enough to see them now. . . if it was not for the fact that they were sitting on  the body of the super sea beast that was rampaging at the shore in the village just a few moments ago.

「Fufufu~~ As expected of the Argo fleet. Getting here took them even more time than expected, aunt Leticia.」

「It most certainly did, Lamia.」

A young, blonde girl with red eyes that shone like gemstones laughed gently, while the other one, the one called Leticia crossed her arms on her chest with a perplexed expression. The two of them were staring at the pieces of the wreckage that remained from the destroyed Argo fleet as they were making their way flowing through the cove. One closer look at their faces from up close would be enough to tell anyone exactly who those two beauties were.

Blonde hair that shined as if they were strands of gold illuminated by the morning sunlight, and the red eyes that looked like the world’s finest rubies melded from melted blood. There can be no mistaking it: they are both Pureblood Vampires. Moreover, Leticia had an image of a dragon that could be inherited only by the members of vampiric royalty embedded on her back. Looking at it as it shone as bright as the sunlight, Leticia’s companion laughed with a melodic voice.

The younger vampire, the elegant one called Lamia then looked at the scene before her with great curiosity and entertainment written all over her face, while Leticia, who was emanating an aura of beauty and loneliness looked like she was in agony and anguish.

It was evident that the two beauties like them looked like they were certainly out of place in a place like that. However, no one who would look at them now would ever dare to suspect that these beautiful beings were the ones who were responsible for orchestrating the tragedy that has befallen the Argo fleet.

The vampires that live in Little Garden are the guardians of its law and order called 「Knights of the Garden」. Normally they would have to be vary of the sun that shines there, limiting the periods of their activity only to night hours, but thanks to the existence of a special barrier that sprawled throughout the entirety of Little Garden they no longer need to worry themselves with the sunlight’s harmful influence on them.

In exchange for the protection from the deadliest of their weaknesses, vampires agreed to become the guardians of Little Garden’s order, and that is how 「Knights of the Garden」were formed. Also, because of the anti-sunlight barrier existing, it basically became nigh-impossible to tell a vampire apart from any other normal human, so even if you were staring right at it you would not know that they were not human.

And now, two of those blood-sucking demons were staring at the burning remains of {The Argonaut’s} fleet. But as they were watching all of the ruined Argo fleet ships pass them by, a voice suddenly called out to them.

「How unexpected. Did you betray the Community, Leticia?」

Having her name called out with a sorrowful voice filled with grief, Leticia raised her face up and tilted her head in wonder. At first they only heard the sound of the footsteps approaching from the side of the coastal cliffs, but soon after, the figure of a sturdy-looking warrior appeared before them. That man had a flaxen hair that were long enough to reach all the way to the ground, making him look like a lion.

Having been called by her name out of the blue, Leticia’s beautiful face got distorted as she glared at the man. From that expression alone Lamia guessed that this was someone whom Leticia did not want to meet. At the very least she herself was certain that she has never seen a man like that before, and so her lips curved up in a dissatisfied grimace as she asked:

「Aunt Leticia, who is this man? Do you know him?」

「Yes, I do. He is an old acquaintance of mine.」

「Is that so? An old acquaintance you say? All right, let us kill him then.」

She said while scratching her head with her raid nails. When she did that, her fan-shaped hair shone brightly and generated as much cracks and jolts in the atmosphere around them as there were hair on Lamia’s head. They were so powerful that even the Adamantium-reinforced elements of the decks of Argo fleet’s ships among the floating wreckage were being easily torn apart when they came into contact with them. . .  it was an attack with a number of unseen blades that literally was not giving whoever was unlucky enough to find themselves at the receiving end of it any room to avoid it. . . but even when faced with something like that, the man simply stood there, intending not to budge for even an inch.

「.. . . . . . . . . . . .  mu.」

Lamia was very much displeased when she saw that her attack did not do anything to the man despite the area that surrounded him being covered in cracks and deep cuts. How was he able to do that while not moving at all was beyond Lamia’s understanding, but she definitely was not going to take that lying down, so she prepared herself to launch another attack. However, Leticia stopped her before she could begin her assault on him anew.

「It is no use, Lamia. No amount of half-hearted attacks is going to work against that man.」

「Hmm? Well, okay. . . but why, though? Is this man a Spirit or something?」

「Not quite a Spirit, but I would dare say that he is something equally, if not even more troubling to deal with. While not strictly a God himself, he is the one hailed as the strongest hero of the Greek mythology. I am sure that you have heard his name and know it very well. Heracles, a Demigod born from the union of a mortal woman and Zeus, the King of the Gods from Mount Olympus.」

Upon hearing the warrior’s name, Lamia looked at him, then at Leticia, and then at Heracles again.

「Heracles? As in, one of the Organizers of the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority and the one who triumphed over the Twelve Labors?! The strongest of Greek Demigods and the hero of the same Dystopian War that you fought in, aunt Leticia?!」

「The Closed-Off World」Dystopia. . . . there is not a single soul in Little Garden who does not know that name. He was one of the strongest Demon Lords to ever appear in Little Garden, as was evident by the title that was given to him, which placed him on the pedestal along with other Demon Lords such as 「The Devil of the Far West」, 「Final Observer of Mankind」and  「God Eater」.

Long, long ago in the distant past, when Little Garden was not yet divided into North, East, West and South sides that Demon Lord wanted to rule over both Little Garden and the Outer World, placing the inhabitants of those two places in quite a pinch. As a result, it is said that not only the Gods themselves, but also many mythical heroes such as Orpheus the Argonaut Poet, Scathach the Queen of the Land of Shadows, the Jade Emperor, King  Artorius and many, many more participated in the battle meant to pacify him that ended up dividing the entire Little Garden. But since Heracles was not among those heroes, he simply shook his head.

「If that is one of the achievements associated with me, then I am afraid you either heard wrong or someone is spreading such misinformation on purpose. For you see, I was not among those who have participated in the Dystopian War. As one of the predecessors of all the heroes who came after me, I felt that it would be more appropriate of me to begin sowing the seeds of the new possibilities. . . but that is just an excuse. Truth is, there was no way for a relic of the past such as myself to be able to defeat one of the 「Final Trials of Humanity」, so there was no reason for me to join that fight in the first place.」